Fifty years ago, this year ... a strong clear line was drawn in the rhetorical sands of the day.
Funny, how so much of it, still rings true today.
JFK "Peace" Speech at American University -- Part 1
link to clip
Kennedy describes his vision for world peace in an age of nuclear threats.
American University Speech -- June 10, 1963
President Kennedy:
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Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need them is essential to the keeping of peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles -- which can only destroy and never create -- is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.
I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war -- and frequently the words of the pursuers fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.
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But I also believe that we must re-examine our own attitudes -- as individuals and as a nation -- for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward -- by examining his own attitude towards the possibilities of peace, towards the Soviet Union, towards the course of the cold war and towards freedom and peace here at home.
First: Examine our attitude towards peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable -- that mankind is doomed -- that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems are man-made. Therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable -- and we believe they can do it again.
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JFK's "Peace" Speech at American University -- Part 2
link to clip
American University Speech -- June 10, 1963
President Kennedy:
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For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal.
Third: Let us re-examine our attitude towards the cold war, remembering that we are not engaged in a debate, seeking to pile up debating points.
We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment. We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had the history of the last eighteen years been different.
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Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace -- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions -- on a series of concrete actions and effective agreement which are in the interests of all concerned.
There is no single, simple key to this peace -- no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process -- a way of solving problems.
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While we proceed to safeguard our national interests let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both.
No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can -- if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers -- offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough -- more than enough -- of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just.
We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we must labor on -- not towards a strategy of annihilation but towards a strategy of peace.
Thank you.
About 6 months later, this voice of rationality and reason, this beacon of hope in a hot-button world -- was silenced forever, some say by very forces of chaos and domination, that he dared to contain. This leader of a free Nation, daring to reach out to build a better world, never had the gift of time, to complete his dream of peace.
And we have been all the poorer as a Nation, for the life-cut-short ever since.
RIP JFK. May your words yet carry, the weight of their original intent ... Before we slide any further, down the slippery preemptive slope on which we now scramble for whatever solid footholds, that may still be there to be found.
Footholds of rationality to excuse our deep-seated fear, and reflexive hate for the others;
Scrambling for whatever rationales there are, that can somehow still justify this ceaseless pursuit of evermore sophisticated implements -- that destroy freedoms. That same pursuit to which JFK dared to say No.
A leader who dared to say: There IS a better way. A way that creates ... and not destroys.