President
John F. Kennedy, USA & President William
V. S. Tubman, Liberia
Message
to President Tubman of Liberia
on the Occasion of the Monrovia Conference
of African States. May 8, 1961
Dear
Mr. President:
I want to extend to you and to the delegates
to the Monrovia Conference the best wishes
of the Government and the people of the
United States for the success of your conference.
When
the leaders of the African nations meet
together to discuss the freedom, the security
and the economic well-being of their people,
all friends of Africa rejoice. We greatly
applaud the determination of African leaders
to come to grips with their own problems.
They are African problems and they must
be solved, first of all, in African terms.
Solutions thus arrived at advance not only
the interest of the African peoples; they
contribute also to international understanding
and world peace.
The
United States of America welcomes African
moves toward greater regional or continent-wide
cooperation. It strongly hopes for the success
of African arrangements designed to keep
the peace in Africa, which can serve as
an inspiration for other parts of the world
community.
It
is our further hope that your conference,
through discussion of economic and social
problems of the African peoples, may arrive
at understandings and decisions which will
promote economic growth. I assure you that
the United States is anxious to assist in
promoting that growth because of our conviction
that no nation in the world today can live
in peace and prosperity while others are
denied the full realization of social progress
and human dignity.
To
you, your fellow Chiefs of State, and the
Foreign Ministers and other representatives
at the Monrovia Conference, I express in
my own name and in the name of the American
people our most sincere hope that this Conference
will achieve a full measure of practical
success, contributing thereby to the further
strengthening of freedom in Africa and throughout
the world.
JOHN
F. KENNEDY
Remarks
of Welcome to the President of Liberia at
Washington National Airport.
October 19, 1961
MR.
PRESIDENT, it is a great honor to welcome
you and the members of your government here
on a visit to Washington and the United
States.
You
have occupied a position of the highest
responsibility in your country since 1943,
a record unprecedented at this time any
place in the world. You are the only surviving
political leader of those days long ago
during the days of the Second World War.
You have come on many occasions to the United
States, and you come again on this occasion
at a time of great change in Africa, a time
of great progress within your own country.
You, Mr. President, are a symbol of stability
and also of change, and it is a particular
pleasure to welcome to this country the
leader of a country with which the United
States has enjoyed the closest and most
intimate relations stretching back over
a century, to welcome a leader who has been
identified in his own life and in his own
country with the great causes of freedom
and progress and well-being of his people.
And therefore, Mr. President, I welcome
you to the United States once again. I express
particular pleasure in having you here at
this time and in having an opportunity to
discuss with you the great changes which
are occurring in Africa and throughout the
world. With your long view, your long experience,
you are a most welcome guest.
Mr.
President, the people of the United States
once again wish to join in welcoming you
to our country.
Mr.
President, the fact that you have extended
us an invitation to visit you and your great
country at a time like this, a time of crisis,
a time of tension, is reassuring and another
manifestation of a century old friendship
and intimacy that has existed between our
two countries from the time of our incipiency
as a nation until the present.
Through
the years we have identified ourselves with
your system of government. Our own Constitution
was patterned after that of the United States
of America, and that immortal document was
written and prepared by one of your fellow
countrymen, Mr. Greenleaf, and I could go
on for many hours showing the cordial and
very friendly close ties that have existed
between our countries.
I
am very happy to be here. As you well said,
I have come here on several occasions, and
particularly now that I know the burdens
and responsibilities that you carry, it
is a great expression of affection, not
for me so much as for my country, of which
I am particularly proud and grateful.
