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Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. Well I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers. We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. Do they mean peace, or do they mean we just want to be left in peace? There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us. And we've just had announced that the dollar of 1939 will now purchase 45 cents in its total value.Īs for the peace that we would preserve, I wonder who among us would like to approach the wife or mother whose husband or son has died in South Vietnam and ask them if they think this is a peace that should be maintained indefinitely. Foreign dollar claims are 27.3 billion dollars. We have 15 billion dollars in gold in our treasury we don't own an ounce. We've raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world. We haven't balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector's share, and yet our government continues to spend 17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in. No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income. The line has been used, "We've never had it so good."īut I have an uncomfortable feeling that this prosperity isn't something on which we can base our hopes for the future. Now, one side in this campaign has been telling us that the issues of this election are the maintenance of peace and prosperity. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines. I recently have seen fit to follow another course.

I have spent most of my life as a Democrat.

As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. Transcript of "A Time for Choosing," delivered on national television on October 27, 1964 You may watch the speech on our YouTube channel. He won two terms, and eventually won the Presidency. He agreed in 1966 to run for Governor of California. The Republican Party took note and they targeted Reagan as a candidate from that point forward. Donations to the Republican party and candidates increased dramatically. The speech was aired on Octoand it was electrifying. "The Speech" was delivered in various forms and to different audiences as each word was honed, measured and memorized.ĭuring the 1964 Presidential campaign, Republican party officials in California, who knew Reagan's powerful message and delivery, asked him to film a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater. This continued and intensified during his service as the General Electric spokesperson while hosting their sponsored television series.

He traveled across the country meeting Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce and any other civic-minded local groups. Ronald Reagan began a long side-career of public speaking as his acting career closed out. Today we call it, "A Time for Choosing," and it was a pivotal turning point in Ronald Reagan's life. "The Speech" is what Ronald Reagan called it.