THE PRICE OF PEACE
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr.Speaker, members of my family and friends, my countrymen, and the friendsof my country, wherever they may be, we meet again, as upon a like momentfour years ago, and again you have witnessed my solemn oath of service toyou.
| 1 |
| I, too, am a witness, today testifying in your name to the principlesand purposes to which we, as a people, are pledged. | 2 |
| 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 deepestprayers of our whole people. | 3 |
| May we pursue the right—without self-righteousness. | 4 |
| May we know unity—without conformity. | 5 |
| May we grow in strength—without pride in self. | 6 |
| May we, in our dealings with all peoples of the earth, everspeak truth and serve justice. | 7 |
| And so shall America—in the sight of all men of good will—provetrue to the honorable purposes that bind and rule us as a people in allthis time of trial through which we pass. | 8 |
| We live in a land of plenty, but rarely has this earth knownsuch peril as today. | 9 |
| 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 thesong of our industry—rolling mills and blast furnaces, dynamos, dams,and assembly lines—the chorus of America the bountiful. | 10 |
| 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 forus—this is no time of ease or of rest. | 11 |
| In too much of the earth there is want, discord, danger. Newforces 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. Fromthe deserts of North Africa to the islands of the South Pacific one thirdof all mankind has entered upon an historic struggle for a new freedom;freedom from grinding poverty. Across all continents, nearly a billion peopleseek, sometimes almost in desperation, for the skills and knowledge andassistance by which they may satisfy from their own resources, the materialwants common to all mankind. | 12 |
| No nation, however old or great, escapes this tempest of changeand turmoil. Some, impoverished by the recent World War, seek to restoretheir means of livelihood. In the heart of Europe, Germany still standstragically divided. So is the whole continent divided. And so, too, is allthe world. | 13 |
| The divisive force is International Communism and the powerthat it controls. | 14 |
| 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 strivesto break the ties that unite the free. And it strives to capture—toexploit for its own greater power—all forces of change in the world,especially the needs of the hungry and the hopes of the oppressed. | 15 |
| Yet the world of International Communism has itself been shakenby a fierce and mighty force: the readiness of men who love freedom to pledgetheir lives to that love. Through the night of their bondage, the unconquerablewill of heroes has struck with the swift, sharp thrust of lightning. Budapestis no longer merely the name of a city; henceforth it is a new and shiningsymbol of man's yearning to be free. | 16 |
| Thus across all the globe there harshly blow the winds of change.And, we—though fortunate be our lot—know that we can never turnour backs to them. | 17 |
| We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm andfixed purpose—the building of a peace with justice in a world wheremoral law prevails. | 18 |
| The building of such a peace is a bold and solemn purpose. Toproclaim it is easy. To serve it will be hard. And to attain it, we mustbe aware of its full meaning—and ready to pay its full price. | 19 |
| We know clearly what we seek, and why. | 20 |
| 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, bythe power of modern weapons, that peace may be the only climate possiblefor human life itself. | 21 |
| Yet this peace we seek cannot be born of fear alone: it mustbe rooted in the lives of nations. There must be justice, sensed and sharedby all peoples, for, without justice the world can know only a tense andunstable truce. There must be law, steadily invoked and respected by allnations, for without law, the world promises only such meager justice asthe pity of the strong upon the weak. But the law of which we speak, comprehendingthe values of freedom, affirms the equality of all nations, great and small. | 22 |
| Splendid as can be the blessings of such a peace, high willbe its cost: in toil patiently sustained, in help honorably given, in sacrificecalmly borne. | 23 |
| We are called to meet the price of this peace. | 24 |
| To counter the threat of those who seek to rule by force, wemust pay the costs of our own needed military strength, and help to buildthe security of others. | 25 |
| We must use our skills and knowledge and, at times, our substance,to help others rise from misery, however far the scene of suffering maybe 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—orthere will surely rise at last the flames of conflict. | 26 |
| We recognize and accept our own deep involvement in the destinyof men everywhere. We are accordingly pledged to honor, and to strive tofortify, the authority of the United Nations. For in that body rests thebest hope of our age for the assertion of that law by which all nationsmay live in dignity. | 27 |
| And, beyond this general resolve, we are called to act a responsiblerole in the world's great concerns or conflicts—whether they touchupon 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 andcultures of others will we practice the equality of all nations. Only aswe show willingness and wisdom in giving counsel—in receiving counsel—andin sharing burdens, will we wisely perform the work of peace. | 28 |
| For one truth must rule all we think and all we do. No peoplecan live to itself alone. The unity of all who dwell in freedom is theironly sure defense. The economic need of all nations—in mutual dependence—makesisolation an impossibility; not even America's prosperity could long surviveif 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. | 29 |
| Our pledge to these principles is constant, because we believein their rightness. | 30 |
| We do not fear this world of change. America is no strangerto much of its spirit. Everywhere we see the seeds of the same growth thatAmerica 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 hashelped excite the longing of all needy peoples for some satisfaction oftheir human wants. These hopes that we have helped to inspire, we can helpto fulfill. | 31 |
| In this confidence, we speak plainly to all peoples. | 32 |
| We cherish our friendship with all nations that are or wouldbe free. We respect, no less, their independence. And when, in time of wantor peril, they ask our help, they may honorably receive it; for we no moreseek to buy their sovereignty than we would sell our own. Sovereignty isnever bartered among freemen. | 33 |
| We honor the aspirations of those nations which, now captive,long for freedom. We seek neither their military alliance nor any artificialimitation of our society. And they can know the warmth of the welcome thatawaits them when, as must be, they join again the ranks of freedom. | 34 |
| We honor, no less in this divided world than in a less tormentedtime, the people of Russia. We do not dread, rather do we welcome, theirprogress in education and industry. We wish them success in their demandsfor more intellectual freedom, greater security before their own laws, fullerenjoyment 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 freelymeet in friendship. | 35 |
| So we voice our hope and our belief that we can help to healthis divided world. Thus may the nations cease to live in trembling beforethe menace of force. Thus may the weight of fear and the weight of armsbe taken from the burdened shoulders of mankind. | 36 |
| This, nothing less, is the labor to which we are called andour strength dedicated. | 37 |
| And so the prayer of our people carries far beyond our own frontiers,to the wide world of our duty and our destiny. | 38 |
| May the light of freedom, coming to all darkened lands, flamebrightly—until at last the darkness is no more. | 39 |
| 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. | 40 |