June 14, 1952
Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Secretary:
I certainly do appreciate the model very much. I hope you noticed the introduction that Mr. Hopkins used. He set me 50 years ahead of my time!
You know, he made the statement that he was sitting next to a great President. A President is never great until he is 50 years dead. It's like a statesman, when a man is alive he's a politician--and that's what I am--and when he's dead he's a statesman. Now it will be 50 years before I can be a great President or a statesman.
But Mr. Robinson here comes down to modern times and gives me the advance copy of the great submarine which we started today. And I am told by my naval aide that it was made at the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
Thank you very much for the most pleasant of days. I have enjoyed it immensely-had a good time. And I think we have started something that will, in the long run--maybe 50 years from now--make history.
I am most happy to be a part of the ceremony today. I have been most vitally interested in this wonderful discovery. It is terrible and wonderful, both. And as the people who have been connected with it will tell you, while I am less than nothing as an educator and scientist, I think I know a good thing when I see it. I was raised on a Missouri farm and had to learn to judge mules, and you had to know a good one when you saw him or he would get the best of you.
But I am sure from this point on we will make history, and we are making it all the time. But this will be what you might call a milestone today in the historical setup of the discovery of the breaking of the atom and using it for energy for peaceful purposes.
I am glad to be a part of it, and I hope you are a good prophet.
Thank you very much.
NOTE: The President spoke at 2:32 p.m. His opening words referred to John Jay Hopkins, President, and O. P. Robinson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, General Dynamics Corporation, and Dan A. Kimball, Secretary of the Navy.
The officers of the General Dynamics Corporation presented the President with a model of the first nuclear powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus.
See also Item 170.
Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Secretary:
I certainly do appreciate the model very much. I hope you noticed the introduction that Mr. Hopkins used. He set me 50 years ahead of my time!
You know, he made the statement that he was sitting next to a great President. A President is never great until he is 50 years dead. It's like a statesman, when a man is alive he's a politician--and that's what I am--and when he's dead he's a statesman. Now it will be 50 years before I can be a great President or a statesman.
But Mr. Robinson here comes down to modern times and gives me the advance copy of the great submarine which we started today. And I am told by my naval aide that it was made at the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
Thank you very much for the most pleasant of days. I have enjoyed it immensely-had a good time. And I think we have started something that will, in the long run--maybe 50 years from now--make history.
I am most happy to be a part of the ceremony today. I have been most vitally interested in this wonderful discovery. It is terrible and wonderful, both. And as the people who have been connected with it will tell you, while I am less than nothing as an educator and scientist, I think I know a good thing when I see it. I was raised on a Missouri farm and had to learn to judge mules, and you had to know a good one when you saw him or he would get the best of you.
But I am sure from this point on we will make history, and we are making it all the time. But this will be what you might call a milestone today in the historical setup of the discovery of the breaking of the atom and using it for energy for peaceful purposes.
I am glad to be a part of it, and I hope you are a good prophet.
Thank you very much.
NOTE: The President spoke at 2:32 p.m. His opening words referred to John Jay Hopkins, President, and O. P. Robinson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, General Dynamics Corporation, and Dan A. Kimball, Secretary of the Navy.
The officers of the General Dynamics Corporation presented the President with a model of the first nuclear powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus.
See also Item 170.