Under the auspices of the United Nations, there is promise of progress in our country’s plan for the peaceful use of atomic energy.

Finally, today the world is at peace.  It is, to be sure, an secure peace.  Yet all humanity finds hope in the simple fact that for an appreciable time there has been no active major battlefield on earth.  This same fact inspires us to work all the more effectively with other nations for the well-being, the freedom, the dignity, of every human on earth.

These developments are heartening indeed, and we are hopeful of continuing progress.  But sobering problems remain.

The massive military machines and ambitions of the Soviet-Communist bloc still create uneasiness in the world.  All of us are aware of the continuing reliance of the Soviet Communists on military force, of the power of their weapons, of their present resistance to realistic armament limitation, and of their continuing effort to dominate or intimidate free nations on their periphery.  Their steadily growing power includes an increasing strength in nuclear weapons.  This power, combined with the proclaimed intentions of the Communist leaders to communize the world, is the threat confronting us today.

To protect our nations and our peoples from the catastrophe of a nuclear holocaust, free nations must maintain countervailing military power to persuade the Communists of the futility of seeking their ends through aggression.  If Communist rulers understand that America’s response to aggression will be swift and decisive—­that never shall we buy peace at the expense of honor or faith—­they will be powerfully deterred from launching a military venture engulfing their own peoples and many others in disaster.  This, of course, is merely world stalemate.  But in this stalemate each of us may and must exercise his high duty to strive in every honorable way for enduring peace.

The military threat is but one menace to our freedom and security.  We must not only deter aggression; we must also frustrate the effort of Communists to gain their goals by subversion.  To this end, free nations must maintain and reinforce their cohesion, their internal security, their political and economic vitality, and their faith in freedom.

In such a world, America’s course is dear: 

We must tirelessly labor to make the peace more just and durable.

We must strengthen the collective defense under the United Nations Charter and gird ourselves with sufficient military strength and productive capacity to discourage resort to war and protect our nation’s vital interests.

We must continue to support and strengthen the United Nations.  At this very moment, by vote of the United Nations General Assembly, its Secretary-General is in Communist China on a mission of deepest concern to all Americans:  seeking the release of our never-to-be-forgotten American aviators and all other United Nations prisoners wrongfully detained by the Communist regime.