This article first appeared in the Stars and Stripes Europe edition, June 28, 1964. It is republished in its original form, including language now considered offensive and dated.

HEIDELBERG (S&S) – U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy called on West Germans for help in Vietnam as he addressed thousands of students at Heidelberg University Saturday.

“We need your help in Vietnam. I hope that Germany will come forward and contribute,” he said.

He answered questions for 50 minutes in the university’s packed auditorium after a talk urging international interest and understanding in world problems.

Asked by an Indian student if he would answer political questions, the attorney general responded, “I will, but I don’t know how well.”

Kennedy left the hall far behind schedule for a tour of Patrick Henry Village housing area and jostling, applauding students broke through police lines and surged around him and his wife Ethel.

As the crowd got out of hand, Mrs. Kennedy became separated from her husband but finally made it to the auto of Heidelberg’s Lord Mayor Robert Webber.

Kennedy phrased his explanations cautiously on domestic issues for the European audience, but before the question-and-answer session, he urged his listeners to make educated judgements “not only in our own language, but with true global understanding.”

“Ideas should be weighed on merit, not on national origin,” he declared.

All who have the advantage of education have responsibilities to meet the problems of strife, hunger and poverty. “If we don’t make decisions and face our obligations, all of this is wasted, and the world will be lost.”

“As President Kennedy said, ‘The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral.”

Several thousand German and American spectators ringed USAREUR airfield as Kennedy arrived here from Berlin via Air Force plane and Army helicopter.

The Kennedys were met by the lord mayor and his wife. When hundreds pushed forward, Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy went about shaking hands.

At the university, Kennedy was greeted by rector Dr. Kurt Lindemann, an applauding crowd and students hanging from every vantage point. He looked a bit tired from his hectic schedule and took a breather before his speech, which was piped into classrooms and the big garden on the university grounds.

Replying to questions about democracy and the U.S. stand against communism, he explained, “We have no monolithic system which we want to impose on all people.”

“The struggle against the Communists is not only a conflict with a state but the fact they’re trying to export communism to other countries.”

“When they get control, everyone takes orders from Moskow. This is what we’re fighting.”

Kennedy said about U.S. opposition to Red China’s entry into the United Nations: “We’d be happy to see them in the U.N. if they gave any indication they wanted to live in peace with their neighbors.”

“They don’t even want to live in peace with the Soviet Union. It doesn’t make sense to bring them into a peace-promoting organization.”

Kennedy said the United States was supporting South Vietnam because after the 20-year conflict there “we believe if free elections in north and south were held, both would vote overwhelmingly against communism.”

“Only a brave and courageous people could keep up this two-decade struggle,” he said, adding, “We have few soldiers there. The fighting is not being done by outsiders but the people themselves. We’re only interested that they get the kind of government they want.”

The one time he seemed stumped for a moment was when an American studying at Heidelberg asked how he could explain to his German friends Sen. Barry Goldwater’s sudden surge of domestic popularity.

Kennedy said the Arizona candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination was a “very articulate” critic of the present Administration and spokesman for those “people who oppose everything.”

“They want schools, good government and atomic weapons but they just don’t like the people in Washington who are providing these things,” he maintained.

He said groups like these expect the nation’s $97 billion budget to solve all problems.

“Why don’t we throw Castro out of Cuba? Why spend money to keep troops in Europe? Why not just tell the Communists to stop?” This, he said, was their line of thinking.

Some such critics want to know “why a Negro moved into their neighborhood when it was bad enough that the Irish got in,” Kennedy said – “It’s simply that some of the recommendations of those who oppose are not always very well thought out,” he asserted.

“Based on my own trips, it’s not correct that Goldwater has monumental popularity. Polls show that President Johnson would soundly beat Goldwater,” Kennedy declared.

In reply to another student Kennedy said that he has no plans for the future. “I guess I’ll just join the ranks of the unemployed in November,” he said.

After his tour of the Patrick Henry Village housing area, Kennedy returned to Rhine-Main Air Base where he took off for Warsaw and a three day visit to Poland at midafternoon.