some progress in the ABM and the nonproliferation field.

I still have hopes in those fields. I am very grateful for the progress that has been made in space, in the consular, tripartite, and Kennedy Round. I would hope for equally good results in the other two, but I don't know. I don't want to paint a rosy picture only to have you remind me about it at the next meeting. I am hopeful. I see no insurmountable barriers to the nonproliferation at this time, if that gives you a feel of it.

RELATIONS WITH RED CHINA

[18.] Q. Mr. President, does the resumption of conversations in Warsaw between Ambassador Gronouski and the Red Chinese Ambassador give you any hope that relations that we have between ourselves and the Red Chinese will improve, the atmosphere will improve?

THE PRESIDENT. I know of nothing that would indicate any optimistic changes. Ambassador Gronouski reported to me at some length this morning-as I assume he did to you-about his work there. He is diligent and dedicated. We believe that he is doing a good job.

I don't think that we have the answer to the kind of relations with a good many other nations that we would like to have. We constantly work on them, try to improve them. There is our bridgebuilding, EastWest trade.

We were and are hopeful that someday it might lead to an improvement of relations and that someday it might make it possible for all of us to live with understanding and peace in the same world together. It hasn't made that progress yet—either there or here. We still have a long way to go.

The consular treaty was a close vote, as you know. There are some differences now

about the ABM. There is still a good bit of feeling about the nonproliferation agreement. We have to bridge some gaps several places yet, but we are working on them.

THE 1968 CAMPAIGN AND FUNDRAISING

[19.] Q. Mr. President, there is a lot of betting going on as to whether you are going to run again. The Vice President says you are. There are a lot of dinners coming up for raising funds. Are you going to run again?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't remember at just what press conference I answered that. Q. Last fall, in November.

THE PRESIDENT. You will have to read that. I don't want to get in conflict with what I said then.

Q. You will cross that bridge when you come to it?

Q. I don't remember what you said then. THE PRESIDENT. Helen 6 can tell you. She remembers when it was.

We try to go out, Helen, once a year to attend all dinners. We try to make appearances before party leaders and party officials in several places to try to reduce the debt and get extra funds to carry the employees as far ahead as possible.

The Committee has had a substantial deficit and still does, although it has come. down from $3 million or $4 million to a little over $1 million now. The Committee is hoping that we can have a good attendance in New York, Texas, maybe here in Washington-that hasn't been decidedand California. We agreed to have a dinner in California last year. Some people paid for the dinner. The Committee got the money and they never got the dinner. We have planned for some time to return there. That is imminent now. We hope to do it Helen Thomas of United Press International.

sometime in the next few weeks. But we will try to sandwich them in where you can hear the speeches in one month and hear them repeated about three or four times. Then we will get away from those JeffersonJackson Day dinners.

I expect most of them will be in the month of June. We want them that way so we can take the weekend. We are tentatively committed to either go myself or have some of the other leaders in the administration go to try to pay that debt off. Some of them are pressing us. A million dollars is a lot of money for the Democratic National Committee.

Q. Mr. President, I wonder if you would permit another whack at that same question. Could you discuss the factors which would determine whether you will run again?

THE PRESIDENT. No.

Q. In a general way-just the factors? THE PRESIDENT. I have a lot of things to spend my time on now, Ray,' besides that.

PACE OF THE WAR

[20.] Q. Mr. President, the other side of that China question is: For some reason there seems to be an impression that things are getting a little more dangerous than they have been in months past, that maybe things are headed for a much bigger collision, that things are getting out of control.

Do you have the sense that the pace of the war or the nature of the people who are arrayed around it is very different from what it was 5 or 6 months ago?

THE PRESIDENT. I believe that our objectives are the same and our determination is just as strong as it has ever been.

I don't see any great fluctuation in activity, opinion, or judgment. I have said that it is a very difficult thing that we are going

*Raymond L. Scherer of NBC News.

through. It tests the patience and the understanding of each of us.

I hope that all of my countrymen and our friends in the world will recognize and realize what we are doing and why we are doing it.

We believe it is in the best interests of freedom everywhere. We have given our views on negotiation, on peace, and on related matters many, many times.

I know of nothing to be gained by repeating them. But I think that you can see there is hardly anyone who feels that there ought to be unilateral withdrawal. I think that fewer feel that way today than yesterdayor the period behind us.

Q. Sir, there seems to be in that same connection, at least from reading the reports, an intensification of the troops building up around the DMZ.

Would you comment on that?

THE PRESIDENT. I wouldn't want to discuss that. I see the reports as you do. We don't always know what the intentions of the other people are. We try to be prepared for them.

DISCUSSION WITH THE NEW ENGLAND GOVERNORS

[21.] Q. Mr. President, at the meeting in Connecticut the other day, Governor Curtis said that he was not in favor of a tax-sharing plan and seemed to be in agreement with some form of bloc grants to the States. Was there a great deal of discussion with you on that subject of sharing Federal funds with the States?

THE PRESIDENT. No. I think his reference was to what Mr. Gardner had done about consolidating some grants in his Department. There was no discussion beyond that. It was one of the most constructive meetings I have attended.

We listened to the problems the States

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naissance and offensive operations. The lead tank was hit by a command detonated mine which was the signal for three Viet Cong battalions to open a full-scale attack from both sides of the road. The three Viet Cong battalions occupied defensive fortifications and were heavily equipped with recoilless rifles, automatic weapons and a variety of small arms. Troop A immediately closed with the insurgent force in a fierce assault. Maneuver room was limited due to marshy terrain on either side of the highway. Continuous, multi-direction assaults were attempted by the desperate insurgent forces, but in each case they were halted by accurate tank, automatic, and individual weapons fire. With an indomitable fighting spirit, continuous fire and movement was used to steadily close on the insurgent force. The courageous fighting of the cavalrymen routed the Viet Cong from their emplacements. The gallant actions of Troop A in this six-hour battle was an eminent success. In addition, the armed helicopters of Troop D, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, the supporting artillery, and Air Force fighter aircraft contributed immeasurably to the success of the battle by bringing devastating fire on the Viet Cong. The actions resulted in a count of 105 insurgents killed and a large number. of Viet Cong weapons captured. On the morning of 30 June 1966, Troops B and C were conducting armed reconnaissance north of An Loc on Highway 13, when they were. struck by a Viet Cong regiment. The insurgent force poured a volume of mortar, recoilless rifle and automatic weapons fire into the column from the front and two sides. Fire was immediately returned by the Squadron, engaging the Viet Cong at point-blank range. The insurgents, concealed next to the road, made repeated attempts to overrun the Squadron by use of hand grenades at close. range, point-blank firing, and fanatical as

saults. Maneuver by the cavalrymen was. again severely hampered by dense brush and marshy soil and they were forced to conduct their fight from extremely vulnerable positions. Although four platoon leaders were killed or wounded in the first hour, the gallant stand of the cavalrymen resulted in total defeat of the hostile force, whose scattered survivors fled from the battlefield. On the morning of 9 July, the Squadron's B, C, and D troops deployed southwest of An Loc to lure the insurgents into contact. The reinforced Viet Cong regiment, again covered in the heavy growth along the road, launched a powerful attack under the cover of intense mortar, small arms, automatic weapons, and grenades and .50 caliber machine gun fire. The intensity of the threehour fight equaled the two earlier and longer engagements. The lack of proximate landing zones for the infantry delayed the planned reinforcement and required the Squadron to bear the entire force of the numerically superior insurgent force attack for two hours. The cavalrymen, with immediately responsive and continuous support by air and artillery, heroically stood their ground and broke the Viet Cong attack. The determination displayed by the 1st Squadron, 4th United States Cavalry during the three decisive battles of operation El Paso II resulted in significant victories. The Squadron's indomitable courage resulted in 712 confirmed hostile dead, an estimated 850 additional killed, and large quantities of captured weapons and equipment. The conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism of the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division is in keeping with the finest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon all who participated in these significant battles.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Mr. Vice President, Members of the Cabinet, distinguished Members of the Congress, ladies and gentlemen:

For many centuries, men have been searching for ways to produce fresh water from our oceans. Three hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, the ancient Greeks were struggling to try to solve that problem.

Today, with the signing of this bill here in the East Room of the White House, we take a step toward the end of that struggle that was begun so many years ago. Today we begin the greatest effort in man's history to produce water and electric power from the

sea.

This bill makes possible a new desalting plant which will more than double the world's total capacity for desalting water.

And in the process, it will lower considerably the cost of making fresh water from the sea.

Two years ago, when speaking at an international meeting on desalting, I asked the Congress to authorize this plant for us: to make full use of today's scientific knowledge and to produce, by 1970, 100 million gallons of fresh water per day.

Two years ago that seemed to all of us a very ambitious goal. But this plant will produce not 100 million gallons, but 150 million gallons-50 percent more than we even dared to predict.

Each hour, each day, it will produce more electric power than the Hoover Dam produces.

This plant alone will not suddenly and overnight make our deserts bloom. But more than anything that we have done yet, it does point to the day when lands now dry and empty will sustain life and will feed the people of the world.

In our own country, we know, I think, what hardship is caused when neighbors have to depend on a single river for their water supply, and when we must share those meager resources with each other. One single stream-the Colorado River-must now serve seven dry States, and must provide water in addition for many of our good neighbors in Mexico.

For years, that stream has been the source of much too little water-and much too many arguments. It has been the subject of quarrels, lawsuits, interstate compacts, international treaties, and has affected elections from time to time.

All of that worry, and all of that effort, added not one new drop of water to that great stream.

This bill will help us change all of that. Mexico, the States of the West and the Southwest need much more water, and they need that water now.

This bill will help them get it.

This bill, as you know, marks the beginning, not the end, of all of our efforts.

Our sights are set on a whole family of desalting plants-to help not only our coastal communities, but our inland towns also, which are troubled by brackish water supplies.

Some of these new plants are going to be powered by atomic energy.

Others will be fired by coal, gas, or oil. Others-some day-may even get part of their energy from reconstituted waste products.

Until we build those plants, we are going to continue to face very urgent water problems.

With every tick of the clock, more people are being born into this world. As their need