To put these plans into action, we sent to Europe last week one of our greatest military commanders, General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

General Eisenhower went to Europe to assume command of the united forces of the North Atlantic Treaty countries, including our own forces in Germany.

The people of Europe have confidence in General Eisenhower.  They know his ability to put together a fighting force of allies.  His mission is vital to our security.  We should all stand behind him, and give him every bit of help we can.

Part of our job will be to reinforce the military strength of our European partners by sending them weapons and equipment as our military production expands.

Our program of military assistance extends to the nations in the Near East and the Far East which are trying to defend their freedom.  Soviet communism is trying to make these nations into colonies, and to use their people as cannon fodder in new wars of conquest.  We want their people to be free men and to enjoy peace.

Our country has always stood for freedom for the peoples of Asia.  Long, long ago it stood for the freedom of the peoples of Asia.  Our history shows this.  We have demonstrated it in the Philippines.  We have demonstrated it in our relations with Indonesia, India, and with China.  We hope to join in restoring the people of Japan to membership in the community of free nations.

It is in the Far East that we have taken up arms, under the United Nations, to preserve the principle of independence for free nations.  We are fighting to keep the forces of Communist aggression from making a slave state out of Korea.

Korea has tremendous significance for the world.  It means that free nations, acting through the United Nations, are fighting together against aggression.

We will understand the importance of this best if we look back into history.  If the democracies had stood up against the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, or the attack on Ethiopia in 1935, or the seizure of Austria in 1938, if they had stood together against aggression on those occasions as the United Nations has done in Korea, the whole history of our time would have been different.

The principles for which we are fighting in Korea are right and just.  They are the foundations of collective security and of the future of free nations.  Korea is not only a country undergoing the torment of aggression; it is also a symbol.  It stands for right and justice in the world against oppression and slavery.  The free world must always stand for these principles—­and we will stand with the free world.

As the third part of our program, we will continue to work for peaceful settlements in international disputes.  We will support the United Nations and remain loyal to the great principles of international cooperation laid down in its charter.

We are willing, as we have always been, to negotiate honorable settlements with the Soviet Union.  But we will not engage in appeasement.