 As the Berlin crisis built to a climax during the summer of 1961, more and more refugees from East Germany seized the opportunity to escape to freedom. As the stream of refugees mounted, the tension between east and west mounted also. Finally, in August, the door was slammed shut. All further escape was cut off. The crisis of Berlin was full blown. July 25th, the President of the United States went on television to explain to a troubled nation the significance of the crisis which was building in Berlin. The immediate threat to free men is in West Berlin. That isolated outpost is not an isolated problem. The threat is worldwide. Our efforts must be equally wide and strong and not be obsessed by any single manufactured crisis. The threat is indeed worldwide. What is happening in this divided city is merely the most recent and most dramatic manifestation of the increasing tension in a divided world. It exists in Laos, where the Communist-inspired Partet Laos forces have attempted to take over the legal government headed by Premier Bounom for control of a peaceful agricultural nation of two million people. It exists in South Vietnam, where the forces loyal to President Diem are under constant harassment by the Viet Cong guerrillas who infiltrate the country from communist-controlled North Vietnam. Threat exists in the Middle East, where communism seeks to take advantage of the inevitable political and social instability resulting from the adoption of feudal societies to 20th century problems. It exists in Africa, where trained communist emissaries are attempting to exploit the strong nationalist feelings of the emerging nations in order to bring about communist-oriented governments. And it exists in Cuba, only 90 miles from the United States, where Castro has admitted his communist sympathies and where communist propaganda is being manufactured and communist leaders are being trained for export to every nation in Latin America but for more sensitive trouble spots in a troubled world. Efforts to sustain both peace and freedom, the United States has helped to organize a series of treaty organizations. There is NATO, which is intended to be an effective deterrent to communist aggression in Europe. The strength of the alliance on which our security depends is dependent in turn on our willingness to meet our commitments to them. There is, for example, CETO, designed to maintain the peace in the threatened areas of Southeast Asia, the United Nations, which has been active in such trouble spots as North Africa and the Congo. But membership in these organizations carries heavy responsibilities, many of a military nature. Strategic weapons at the President's disposal include the continent-spanning Atlas missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead into the very heart of the enemy's territory. They include the Polaris missile, which can be fired from nuclear-powered submarines lying undetected in the depths of the ocean. And they include the long-range expertly manned bombers of the Strategic Air Command. These forces together provide an effective nuclear deterrent to aggression against the United States or its NATO allies, so forces to defend American interests in the danger areas. In Europe, the 7th Army's combat effectiveness was dramatically increased by an airlift of troops direct from the United States. Combat ready, equipped with conventional and nuclear weapons, the 7th Army is our key to defense in Europe. It's a continuous patrol, while the 7th Fleet patrols the broad reaches of the Western Pacific, but three divisions of Marines, tough and well-trained warriors able to give a good account of themselves under any conditions. United States, there is Strike Command, the combination of the Tactical Air Command and the Strategic Army Corps, prepared to move on a moment's notice to any trouble spot in the world. Although well-equipped to handle the small-scale brush-fire type of war, which must be snuffed out quickly, these forces are not large enough to cope with all types of threats. The President has therefore requested a military build-up in order to confront any aggressor in any critical area. We need the capability of placing in any critical area at the appropriate time a force which combined with those of our allies is large enough to make clear our determination and our ability to defend our rights at all costs and to meet all levels of aggressive pressure with whatever levels of force are required. We intend to have a wider choice than humiliation or all-out nuclear action. Deives assembled in Congress saw fit to grant the request. The armed services was assigned a specific role in strengthening our defense posture. The Navy was asked to increase its troop carrying capacity and to strengthen its anti-submarine forces in order to ensure the safe passage of the additional troop ships. The Air Force has been asked to increase its airlift capacity in order to rush troops directly to any point of danger and to build up its ground support capabilities in order to support these troops once they are on the spot. The Army has been given the major role in strengthening the President's hand. Already augmented by two more regular Army divisions, the Army has been asked to increase its conventional warfare capabilities to the point where the United States can meet an enemy attack on its own terms, wherever it hits, whatever its weapons. This is the Army's mission. To accomplish it, the Army has already begun a steady buildup of both regular and special forces. Under the Continental Army Command, plans have been drawn up to increase the entire Army in size and in combat effectiveness. The 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions, as well as the 2nd Armored Division, are being converted from training divisions to full-strength, completely equipped combat-ready divisions. These divisions will then be available either to reinforce the Strategic Army Corps or to strengthen our forces in Europe or the Far East. To its required level in size, 133,000 men will be added by June of 1962. Some of this added manpower will come from reserve units, other key specialists who are retained in active service beyond their normal tour of duty. Some will come from specialized individuals or units called up to active duty from the ready reserves or the National Guard. But the majority of the Army's men will come in either as volunteers through the Army recruiting centers or as draftees through their local draft boards. However they come in, more and more young Americans will be asked to postpone their education or interrupt their business careers in order to serve their country. To receive and train these men, several new training centers have been established. One at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Another at Fort Carson, Colorado, in the shadow of the Rockies. Once they are in the Army, the trainees follow much the same routine as they have been following since World War II. The uniform is a little different now and it usually fits a little better. Some of the questions on the classification tests have been changed, but the life of the trainee remains basically the same. Early to bed, early to rise, with plenty of good food and lots of outdoor exercise to go with it. Much of a trainee's time in fact is spent in physical conditioning. The modern soldier must be hard and tough. He may be called upon to serve in any kind of terrain, under any conditions of weather or climate. And he must be able to cope with any type of emergency, defend himself against any kind of attack. Finally, of course, he must master an array of the newest and most modern weapons and combat equipment. Once he has been assigned to a unit, he will have to learn how to put all of these individual skills to use as a member of a team, learn a host of other skills. The modern army depends on rapid and secure communications, depends on a large and constant flow of supplies, depends on mobility. Both on the ground, this requires skilled drivers for its vehicles and skilled pilots for its aircraft. Also requires trained combat engineers to build the road and replace destroyed bridges. The army depends on firepower. This means skilled gun crews, accurate gunners. It means well-trained tankers, efficient missile men. Because of the complexity of modern war, the list of things which a trainee may be required to learn is almost endless. And his ability to learn them quickly and accurately will determine to a great extent the army's state of readiness during the next few critical months. But the new trainee will not be carrying the entire burden of our defense buildup alone. Behind him is a strong organization of well-trained reserve and national guard units. Units like the Combat Support Company of the 4th Infantry in Training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Vision from Northern Ohio. This organization set out from its headquarters in Cleveland at the very height of the Berlin Crisis for its annual two-week training period at Camp Pickett and Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia. Everyone realized that there was a special urgency about this year's training. No one was in a position to know just what the future might hold. But come what may, the men of the 83rd Division intended to be prepared for it. And they wasted as little time as possible in getting started. Two weeks of even the most intensive training can hardly ready a unit for combat. Its chief value lies in giving the men a chance to practice in the field the various activities they have been performing in dry runs during the rest of the year. Nevertheless, this two-week period can uncover the basic strength and weakness of a unit and point the direction which additional training should take. Just various units of the National Guard's 43rd Division set out from their home states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont to rendezvous for joint training at Camp Drum, New York. A sense of urgency was pressed to be wasted. Anything these men could learn now might save a lot of time and perhaps a lot of lives later on. And something else was present too. A sense of the past. A sense of the history and traditions of the National Guard. Its instant response in other times of crisis. Tinguist service, wherever and whenever it served were present at Camp Drum in the late summer of 1961 as the National Guard began to flex its muscles and marshal its strength to meet whatever the future might bring. When entering the Army, bring with them a long list of needs and requirements. Requirements which can only be met by a speed-up of the nation's economy. More combat boots will have to be turned out by the shoe factories of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. More cloth for uniforms will have to be turned out by the cotton mills of Virginia and North Carolina. More vehicles of all types will have to be produced by the automobile factories of Detroit, South Bend and Toledo. More signal equipment will have to be turned out by the electronic factories of New Jersey, and Massachusetts. More small arms ammunition will be required from the factories of New Haven and Bridgeport. More projectiles will be needed from the arsenals of Radford and Ravenna. More missiles will have to be supplied by the aircraft plants of Georgia and California. Just as the interests of the entire country are involved in the crisis itself, so the entire country is involved in the preparations necessary to meet the crisis. This is the real meaning of Berlin. It is more than just another twist in the Cold War. It is a sharp heightening of the tension which exists on a world scale between two irreconcilable ways of life. A cloud of apprehension has darkened the sky. The threat of a tornado cannot be ignored. All essential steps must be taken to prepare for it. We rely on our nuclear weapons, and we also, as I said, want to have a choice between humiliation and a holocaust. And therefore, we believe that calling these men up and their willingness to serve increase the chance of maintaining the peace. There are countries where leaders have talked very strongly about standing firm in various areas, but do not have the military force to support that statement. We require it. The United States is the strongest power in the leader of the free world, and as such, we must have the power to make our commitments good. These men who may be serving in a very cold and windy camp and in any kind of service to our country that a airplane standing on a 15-minute alert at a sack base in Omaha is rendering. We call the men in order to prevent a war, not to fight a war. And if our efforts to hold the peace should fail, then, of course, they would be used in a more direct way. But their function today is to indicate that the United States is serious about its commitments, that it means to meet its commitments, that it wants to negotiate a peaceful settlement that is not supposed to surrender.