THE
PRICE OF PEACE
Mr.
Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr.
Speaker, members of my family and friends, my countrymen,
and the friends of my country, wherever they may be, we
meet again, as upon a like moment four years ago, and
again you have witnessed my solemn oath of service to you.
I,
too, am a witness, today testifying in your name to the
principles and purposes to which we, as a people, are
pledged.
Before
all else, we seek, upon our common labor as a nation, the
blessings of Almighty God. And the hopes in our hearts
fashion the deepest prayers of our whole people.
May
we pursue the right without self-righteousness.
May
we know unity without conformity.
May
we grow in strength without pride in self.
May
we, in our dealings with all peoples of the earth, ever
speak truth and serve justice.
And
so shall America in the sight of all men of good will
prove true to the honorable purposes that bind and rule us
as a people in all this time of trial through which we
pass.
We
live in a land of plenty, but rarely has this earth known
such peril as today.
In
our nation work and wealth abound. Our population grows.
Commerce crowds our rivers and rails, our skies, harbors,
and highways. Our soil is fertile, our agriculture
productive. The air rings with the song of our industry
rolling mills and blast furnaces, dynamos, dams, and
assembly lines the chorus of America the bountiful.
This
is our home yet this is not the whole of our world. For
our world is where our full destiny lies with men, of
all people, and all nations, who are or would be free. And
for them and so for us this is no time of ease or of rest.
In
too much of the earth there is want, discord, danger. New
forces and new nations stir and strive across the earth,
with power to bring, by their fate, great good or great
evil to the free world's future. From the deserts of North
Africa to the islands of the South Pacific one third of
all mankind has entered upon an historic struggle for a
new freedom; freedom from grinding poverty. Across all
continents, nearly a billion people seek, sometimes almost
in desperation, for the skills and knowledge and
assistance by which they may satisfy from their own
resources, the material wants common to all mankind.
No
nation, however old or great, escapes this tempest of
change and turmoil. Some, impoverished by the recent World
War, seek to restore their means of livelihood. In the
heart of Europe, Germany still stands tragically divided.
So is the whole continent divided. And so, too, is all the
world.
The
divisive force is International Communism and the power
that it controls.
The
designs of that power, dark in purpose, are clear in
practice. It strives to seal forever the fate of those it
has enslaved. It strives to break the ties that unite the
free. And it strives to capture to exploit for its own
greater power all forces of change in the world,
especially the needs of the hungry and the hopes of the
oppressed.
Yet
the world of International Communism has itself been
shaken by a fierce and mighty force: the readiness of men
who love freedom to pledge their lives to that love.
Through the night of their bondage, the unconquerable will
of heroes has struck with the swift, sharp thrust of
lightning. Budapest is no longer merely the name of a
city; henceforth it is a new and shining symbol of man's
yearning to be free.
Thus
across all the globe there harshly blow the winds of
change. And, we though fortunate be our lot know that we
can never turn our backs to them.
We
look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and
fixed purpose the building of a peace with justice in a
world where moral law prevails.
The
building of such a peace is a bold and solemn purpose. To
proclaim it is easy. To serve it will be hard. And to
attain it, we must be aware of its full meaning and ready
to pay its full price.
We
know clearly what we seek, and why.
We
seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.
And now, as in no other age, we seek it because we have
been warned, by the power of modern weapons, that peace
may be the only climate possible for human life itself.
Yet
this peace we seek cannot be born of fear alone: it must
be rooted in the lives of nations. There must be justice,
sensed and shared by all peoples, for, without justice the
world can know only a tense and unstable truce. There must
be law, steadily invoked and respected by all nations, for
without law, the world promises only such meager justice
as the pity of the strong upon the weak. But the law of
which we speak, comprehending the values of freedom,
affirms the equality of all nations, great and small.
Splendid
as can be the blessings of such a peace, high will be its
cost: in toil patiently sustained, in help honorably
given, in sacrifice calmly borne.
We
are called to meet the price of this peace.
To
counter the threat of those who seek to rule by force, we
must pay the costs of our own needed military strength,
and help to build the security of others.
We
must use our skills and knowledge and, at times, our
substance, to help others rise from misery, however far
the scene of suffering may be from our shores. For
wherever in the world a people knows desperate want, there
must appear at least the spark of hope, the hope of
progress or there will surely rise at last the flames of
conflict.
We
recognize and accept our own deep involvement in the
destiny of men everywhere. We are accordingly pledged to
honor, and to strive to fortify, the authority of the
United Nations. For in that body rests the best hope of
our age for the assertion of that law by which all nations
may live in dignity.
And,
beyond this general resolve, we are called to act a
responsible role in the world's great concerns or
conflicts whether they touch upon the affairs of a vast
region, the fate of an island in the Pacific, or the use
of a canal in the Middle East. Only in respecting the
hopes and cultures of others will we practice the equality
of all nations. Only as we show willingness and wisdom in
giving counsel in receiving counsel and in sharing
burdens, will we wisely perform the work of peace.
For
one truth must rule all we think and all we do. No people
can live to itself alone. The unity of all who dwell in
freedom is their only sure defense. The economic need of
all nations in mutual dependence makes isolation an
impossibility; not even America's prosperity could long
survive if other nations did not also prosper. No nation
can longer be a fortress, lone and strong and safe. And
any people, seeking such shelter for themselves, can now
build only their own prison.
Our
pledge to these principles is constant, because we believe
in their rightness.
We
do not fear this world of change. America is no stranger
to much of its spirit. Everywhere we see the seeds of the
same growth that America itself has known. The American
experiment has, for generations, fired the passion and the
courage of millions elsewhere seeking freedom, equality,
and opportunity. And the American story of material
progress has helped excite the longing of all needy
peoples for some satisfaction of their human wants. These
hopes that we have helped to inspire, we can help to
fulfill.
In
this confidence, we speak plainly to all peoples.
We
cherish our friendship with all nations that are or would
be free. We respect, no less, their independence. And
when, in time of want or peril, they ask our help, they
may honorably receive it; for we no more seek to buy their
sovereignty than we would sell our own. Sovereignty is
never bartered among freemen.
We
honor the aspirations of those nations which, now captive,
long for freedom. We seek neither their military alliance
nor any artificial imitation of our society. And they can
know the warmth of the welcome that awaits them when, as
must be, they join again the ranks of freedom.
We
honor, no less in this divided world than in a less
tormented time, the people of Russia. We do not dread,
rather do we welcome, their progress in education and
industry. We wish them success in their demands for more
intellectual freedom, greater security before their own
laws, fuller enjoyment of the rewards of their own toil.
For as such things come to pass, the more certain will be
the coming of that day when our peoples may freely meet in
friendship.
So
we voice our hope and our belief that we can help to heal
this divided world. Thus may the nations cease to live in
trembling before the menace of force. Thus may the weight
of fear and the weight of arms be taken from the burdened
shoulders of mankind.
This,
nothing less, is the labor to which we are called and our
strength dedicated.
And
so the prayer of our people carries far beyond our own
frontiers, to the wide world of our duty and our destiny.
May
the light of freedom, coming to all darkened lands, flame
brightly until at last the darkness is no more.
May
the turbulence of our age yield to a true time of peace,
when men and nations shall share a life that honors the
dignity of each, the brotherhood of all.
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