It instilled in the free nations-and let none doubt this-the unshakable conviction that, as long as there persists a threat to freedom, they must, at any cost, remain armed, strong, and ready for the risk of war. It forced them to develop weapons of war now capable of inflicting instant and terrible punishment upon any aggressor. It compelled them in self-defense to spend unprecedented money and energy for armaments. The amassing of Soviet power alerted free nations to a new danger of aggression. The result has been tragic for the world and, for the Soviet Union, it has also been ironic. Security was to be sought by denying it to all others. The goal was power superiority at all cost. In the world of its design, security was to be found, not in mutual trust and mutual aid but in force: huge armies, subversion, rule of neighbor nations. The Soviet government held a vastly different vision of the future. This way was to allow all nations to devote their energies and resources to the great and good tasks of healing the war's wounds, of clothing and feeding and housing the needy, of perfecting a just political life, of enjoying the fruits of their own free toil. This way was to control and to reduce armaments. This way was faithful to the spirit that inspired the United Nations: to prohibit strife, to relieve tensions, to banish fears. In the light of these principles the citizens of the United States defined the way they proposed to follow, through the aftermath of war, toward true peace. Third: Any nation's right to a form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.įourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.Īnd fifth: A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations. Second: No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow nations. The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a few clear precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs.įirst: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice. The leaders of the Soviet Union chose another. The United States and our valued friends, the other free nations, chose one road. The nations of the world divided to follow two distinct roads. This common purpose lasted an instant and perished. All these war-weary peoples shared too this concrete, decent purpose: to guard vigilantly against the domination ever again of any part of the world by a single, unbridled aggressive power. Their peoples shared the joyous prospect of building, in honor of their dead, the only fitting monument-an age of just peace. In that spring of victory the soldiers of the Western Allies met the soldiers of Russia in the center of Europe. It weighs the chance for peace with sure, clear knowledge of what happened to the vain hope of 1945. It shuns not only all crude counsel of despair but also the self-deceit of easy illusion. Today the hope of free men remains stubborn and brave, but it is sternly disciplined by experience. And the shadow of fear again has darkly lengthened across the world. The 8 years that have passed have seen that hope waver, grow dim, and almost die. The hope of all just men in that moment too was a just and lasting peace. It came with that yet more hopeful spring of 1945, bright with the promise of victory and of freedom. To weigh this chance is to summon instantly to mind another recent moment of great decision. IN THIS SPRING of 1953 the free world weighs one question above all others: the chance for a just peace for all peoples.
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