Provided just one thing—­and this I urge you to consider carefully—­provided that the free world retains the confidence and the determination to outmatch the best our adversary can accomplish and to demonstrate for uncertain millions on both sides of the iron curtain the superiority of the free way of life.

That is the test upon all the free nations; upon none more than our own Republic.

Our resources are equal to the task.  We have the industry, the skills, the basic economic strength.  Above all, we have the vigor of free men in a free society.  We have our liberties.  And while we keep them, while we retain our democratic faith, the ultimate advantage in this hard competition lies with us, not with the communists.

But there are some things that could shift the advantage to their side.  One of the things that could defeat us is fear—­fear of the task we face, fear of adjusting to it, fear that breeds more fear, sapping our faith, corroding our liberties, turning citizen against citizen, ally against ally.  Fear could snatch away the very values we are striving to defend.

Already the danger signals have gone up.  Already the corrosive process has begun.  And every diminution of our tolerance, each new act of enforced conformity, each idle accusation, each demonstration of hysteria-each new restrictive law—­is one more sign that we can lose the battle against fear.

The communists cannot deprive us of our liberties—­fear can.  The communists cannot stamp out our faith in human dignity-fear can.  Fear is an enemy within ourselves, and if we do not root it out, it may destroy the very way of life we are so anxious to protect.

To beat back fear, we must hold fast to our heritage as free men.  We must renew our confidence in one another, our tolerance, our sense of being neighbors, fellow citizens.  We must take our stand on the Bill of Rights.  The inquisition, the star chamber, have no place in a free society.

Our ultimate strength lies, not alone in arms, but in the sense of moral values and moral truths that give meaning and vitality to the purposes of free people.  These values are our faith, our inspiration, the source of our strength and our indomitable determination.

We face hard tasks, great dangers.  But we are Americans and we have faced hardships and uncertainty before, we have adjusted before to changing circumstances.  Our whole history has been a steady training for the work it is now ours to do.

No one can lose heart for the task, none can lose faith in our free ways, who stops to remember where we began, what we have sought, and what accomplished, all together as Americans.

I have lived a long time and seen much happen in our country.  And I know out of my own experience, that we can do what must be done.

When I think back to the country I grew up in—­and then look at what our country has become—­I am quite certain that having done so much, we can do more.