Senator George Smathers Radio Broadcast 163

mhm. On today's report from Washington, Senator Smathers discusses domestic and foreign problems of interest to the people of Florida and the nation. Now here is the first question Senator matters. You're a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and as an active member, you're kept abreast on what's actually going on in Vietnam.

Uh, but what you can tell us what is the situation there now? Well, it's of course, very bad. Uhh. We're heavily committed in that area. We don't have ourselves enough. People are enough equipment to do the job. We don't want to do it ourselves. We want to South Vietnamese and Malaysian people and the Australians and all the people who belong to the what we call the South Eastern Asiatic Treaty Organization, the seat organization.

They ought to come in and help. Actually, it's the advances of the Communist or a much greater threat to the Philippines and to the Australians, and it is to us. But as usual, we're having to carry the brunt of the burden of this battle. We're going to have to make up our minds very shortly, whether we're either going into it and a rather large scale and try to protect that area of the world from communist takeover, or whether or not we're going to get the others to come in and do their part or whether we're going to get out.

And these are the three alternatives. And, of course, the president. United States will finally have the the decision to make on this matter well, with the situation that allows as it is, doesn't it make us in a much worse position? Well, of course, the Laotian situation has broken out.

We thought we had that neutralized and settled and growing out of the treaty called the Geneva Accord of 19 early 1962 where it was agreed that a neutral is government would take over. But then what happened there was that a certain the rightist generals pulled off a coup as distinguished from the leftist generals and after the rightist generals through the neutral is government out.

Then the Communist supplied, of course, by the red Chinese. They began to move in against this rightist group and ran them off the fields of jar, and with the result that the Communists are going to take over there now what? We're desperately trying to do the British and French and others are calling for it is that we once again re establish the same neutrality that we had.

We thought we had from 1962. That has nothing to do with the U. N. As I understand it, that is, the Gauls interpretation eliminates the united. That's right. That was a separate. That was a treaty entered an agreement entered into by several nations, and it had nothing whatever to do with the unit.

With the United Nations now turning our attention to the Senate here, Senator, we have found a so called compromise bunch of amendments which you're going to be put in, possibly by the time they've heard this. That may have been a vote on it, but regardless of that, what is your opinion?

Is that a weakening now? And and what that means is that in an effort to get closure, the Southerners, we have been able to demonstrate to the people of America that this is a bad bill, that it goes too far and that it never does make sense to try to give rights to 10% of the people, which they really already have but try to give them superior rights at the expense of the 90% of the remaining people.

Now throughout the nation, there has been a realization that this bill went too far, so therefore the proponents of civil rights were not able to get the 67 votes which they need for culture. That is, to cut off the debate and start voting on the bill, because there were too many Midwestern senators in far Western senators who agreed with our position and this was a bad bill.

So Senator Dirksen has assumed the leadership of trying to rewrite the bill and eliminating some of the basic bad provision of it in an effort to try to get 67 senators and primarily the Midwestern senators, to vote with him and with the pro civil rights Democrats and the pro civil rights Republicans for culture.

Now it remains to be seen whether or not this package which, of course, the waters down this bill considerably is sufficiently watered down in order to get closer. This is something that we will see within the next few days. Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers senators matters There seems to be general agreement that we should have a clarification of the right of succession or a vice presidency, how we're going to elect him.

What's transpired on that? Well, the, uh, Judiciary Committee has is now has now before it a proposal which would, I think, clear up this matter considerably. It allows the president when he has become the president by virtue of death of the president and because he was previously a vice president, allows him to select a man to be president, vice president with the consent of the House and the Senate, in other words, so that there will always be those two positions filled.

I think most everybody agrees that that ought to be done, presumably from the same party. Presumably, it would be from the same party. There's no requirement in the proposed legislation at this point as to the Constitution amendment as to whether or not it would be from the same party or have to be.

It doesn't say, but presumably it would be. But anyway, this is a void in our present system which needs to be filled, and I think that the Congress will, by a two thirds vote make this get started as a constitutional amendment. I'm satisfied the states will in turn vote for it because it needs to be done and everybody recognises as needing to be done well.

Some time ago, we discussed the question of imports of beef, meats and so forth. Well, your finance committee get to act on that situation. We're going to try to have a meeting this week and by the time this radio program is heard, we will have undoubtedly had the meeting in an effort to try to report out a bill which would restrict the amount of imports from Australia and from New Zealand of certain types of beef.

Because fact of the matter is that there's more beef available today, a higher demand for it first on the part of the consumer and more beef in the markets today. But the price is still high and the fact of the matter is that the Branch er and the cattle raiser he's getting less than he ever got before.

So we think that it results from two causes. First, there's a great discrepancy in the price between that which the Three Tails store sells it for and that which they pay the farmer. And secondly, because of the cheap importation, the low rate meat that's coming in from these foreign countries and it makes a greater than abundance on the market.

Well, Senator Smathers, I'd like to enclosing this report. Get an evaluation from you if we may, What the general world situation is. We seem to be rather happy in this country. But what about the world at large? You have a stake in that? Now I think you have a son, do you not?

It's going to be Yes, Yes, my son. Of course it graduates this June and then he goes in the navy. It's already been assigned to the seventh Fleet out in Southeast Asia. So naturally, his mother and I are somewhat concerned. On the other hand, I was in the war and others have been in the war and we hope there will be no war.

And I'm sure that knowing our son, he would want to do his part. But naturally it causes us some apprehension With the worsening conditions in Southeast Asia. You ask what is the world situation? I think the world situation economically is very good. The world situation politically is fair.

The world situation with respect to trouble spots is not. There are certain trouble spots is not too good. And those trouble spots are concentrated in Southeast Asia, where it's not good at all in the Mideast, where the Arab nations are beginning to get rather bellicose and belligerent with respect to Israel.

That's potentially a very dangerous spot. And then, of course, we have Cuba as a continuing sore cancerous sore that bothers us here in this Western Hemisphere. Now, if we can, any one of these trouble spots could lead to world conflagration. We have to concentrate our efforts on each one as they developed, and that's what we're doing and have been doing over the years.

I doubt if there will ever be a time when you could say accurately that throughout the world there's not some dangerous spot. But at the moment, the most dangerous part is South Vietnam and the Laotian situation in Southeast Asia, and this is the area to which the President and the Congress and the Defense Department is now giving most of its attention.

Thank you very much. Senator George Smathers, I return you to your station announcer