knowledge of nuclear weapons and the realization that a certain and enduring peace still eludes our persistent search.

But the summer of 1955, like that one of 1945, is another season of high hope for the world. There again stirs in the hearts of men a renewed devotion to the work for the elimination of war. Each of us here is witness that never in 10 years has the will of many nations seemed so resolved to wage an honest and sustained campaign for a just and lasting peace. True, none of us can produce incontestable evidence to support this feeling. Nevertheless, all of us, I think, will testify that the heartfelt longings of countless millions for abundance and justice and peace seem to be commanding everywhere a response from their governments. These longings have strengthened the weak, encouraged the doubtful, heartened the tired, confirmed the believing. Almost it seems that men, with souls restored, are, with faith and courage, resuming the march toward the greatest human goal.

Within a month there will be a four-power conference of Heads of Government. Whether or not we shall then reach the initial decisions that will start dismantling the terrible apparatus of fear and mistrust and weapons erected since the end of World War II, I do not know. The basis for success is simply put: it is that every individual at that meeting be loyal to the spirit of the United Nations and dedicated to the principles of its charter.

I can solemnly pledge to you here-and to all the men and women of the world who may hear or read my words-that those who represent the United States will strive to be thus loyal, thus dedicated. For us of the United States, there is no alternative, because our devotion to the United Nations Charter is the outgrowth of a faith deeply rooted in our cultural, political, spiritual traditions.

Woven into the charter is the belief of its authors:

-that man-a physical, intellectual, and spiritual being has individual rights, divinely bestowed, limited only by the obligation to avoid infringement upon the equal rights of others;

that justice, decency, and liberty in an orderly society are concepts which have raised men above the beasts of the field: to deny any person the opportunity to live under their shelter is a crime against all humanity.

Our Republic was born, grew, stands firm today in a similar belief. The charter assumes that every people has the inherent right to the kind of government under which it chooses to live and the right to select in full freedom the individuals who conduct that government. Hence the charter declares:

that on every nation in possession of foreign territories, there rests the responsibility to assist the peoples of those areas in the progressive development of free political institutions so that ultimately they can validly choose for themselves their permanent political status.

See The Geneva Conference of Heads of Government, July 18-23, 1955 (Department of State publication 6046; 1955); also, supra, pp. 111-114, and infra, pp. 1886-1897, 2005-2016, and 2841-2843.

Our long history as a Republic manifests a self-imposed compulsion to practice these same principles.

The charter recognizes that only those who enjoy free access to historical and current facts and information, and through objective education learn to comprehend their meanings, can successfully maintain and operate a system of self-government.

Our Republic, likewise, maintains that access to knowledge and education is the right of all its citizens-and of all mankind.

Written under the shadow of war, the charter is strong in the conviction that no nation has a right to employ force aggressively against any other. To do so or to threaten to do so-is to defy every moral law that has guided man in his long journey from darkness toward the light. Those who wrote it clearly realized that global war has come to pose for civilization a threat of shattering destruction and a sodden existence by the survivors in a dark and broken world.

Likewise, they recognized that the first responsibility of every nation is to provide for its own defense; and, in pursuance of this responsibility, it has the clear right to associate itself with other like-minded peoples for the promotion of their common security.

But they who wrote the charter emphasized that in the formation of such associations, within the framework of the United Nations, it is incumbent upon the contracting parties to inform the world by solemn assurance, always supported by deeds, that the sole purpose is defense, devoid of aggressive aims.

We as a nation believe these truths that are expressed in the charter. We strive to live by them. So:

We shall always maintain a government at home that recognizes and constantly seeks to sustain for the individual those rich economic, intellectual, and spiritual opportunities to which his human rights entitle him.

In our relations with all other nations, our attitude will reflect full recognition of their sovereign and equal status. We shall deal with common problems in a spirit of partnership.

Insofar as our technical, material, and intellectual capacities permit and wherever our aid-including the peaceful use of atomic energymay be needed and desired, we shall continue to help others achieve constantly rising economic levels. Thereby, we trust that they will have increased opportunity to attain their own cultural and spiritual aspirations.

We shall work with all others-especially through this great organization, the United Nations so that peaceful and reasonable negotiations may replace the clash of the battlefield. In this way we can in time make unnecessary the vast armaments that-even when maintained only for security-still terrify the world with their devastating potentiality and tax unbearably the creative energies of men.

As some success in disarmament is achieved, we hope that each of the so-called great powers will contribute to the United Nations, for promoting the technical and economic progress of the less productive areas, a portion of the resultant savings in military expenditures.

An abiding faith inspired the men and women who devised the

great charter under which you work. We of the United States share that faith. We hold fast to the hope that all nations in their intercourse with others will observe those amenities of deportment, customs, and treatment of other nationals as are sanctioned by tradition, by logic, and by friendly purposes.

We and a majority of all nations, I believe, are united in another hope: that every government will abstain from itself attempting, or aiding others to attempt, the coercion, infiltration, or destruction of other governments in order to gain any political or material advantage or because of differences in philosophies, religions, or ideologies.

We, with the rest of the world, know that a nation's vision of peace cannot be attained through any race in armaments. The munitions of peace are justice, honesty, mutual understanding, and respect for others.

So believing and so motivated, the United States will leave no stone unturned to work for peace. We shall reject no method, however novel, that holds out any hope, however faint, for a just and lasting peace.

May I recall to you the words of a great citizen of this country, Abraham Lincoln, which, though uttered in a different context, apply to the problem which the world now seeks to solve. He said:

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.1

In such a body as this, it seems fitting that we should add to Lincoln's words: "Each for himself, our country and humanity."

The object of our second decade is still peace, but a peace of such new kind that all the world will think anew and act anew. It cannot be a mere stilling of the guns-it must be a glorious way of life. In that life the atom, dedicated once as man's slayer, will become his most productive servant. It will be a peace to inspire confidence and faith so that all peoples will be released from the fear of war. Scientists will be liberated to work always for men, never against them. Who can doubt that in the next 10 years world science can so beat down the ravages of disease and the pangs of poverty that humankind will experience a new expansion of living standards and of cultural and spiritual horizons. In this new kind of peace the artist, teacher, and philosopher, workman, farmer, producer, and scientist will truly work together for the common welfare.

These hopes are not new. They are as old as history. But now as we meet on this Tenth Anniversary in the city where was born the United Nations, we must realize that at last they are steadily and surely attainable. This is new. Our part is to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of the United Nations Charter. May we here and now renew our determination to fulfill man's ancient dream, the dream which so inspired the founders of this organization!

Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862; James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, vol. VI (Washington, 1897),

p. 142.

Thus our duty will be nobly done, and future generations will behold the United Nations and stand up to call it blessed.

64. ADDRESS BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE AT THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY MEETING, JUNE 24, 1955 1

Anniversaries can be both pleasant and useful occasions. This meeting is of that kind. We look backward and see much that was good. We look forward and see much of promise.

The United Nations has already shown that it is here to stay. One proof is the presence here of 37 Foreign Ministers who have come from all parts of the earth. Another proof is the fact that, since its founding, no member nation has sought to withdraw; and there is a long-too long-waiting list of qualified nations which want to become members.

This esteem for the United Nations is based on solid accomplishments.

In the political field there have been moments of triumph, as when the United Nations enabled Iran to bring about withdrawal of foreign troops from its soil. And when it helped Greece to overcome the threat of Communist subversion. And, above all, when it saved the Republic of Korea by organizing collective defense.*

In the field of non-self-governing territories, the United Nations, working through the Trusteeship Council and otherwise, improves the lot of many dependent peoples and brings them nearer the goal of self-government or independence.

Through its Declaration of Human Rights," the United Nations holds aloft a standard which will lead increasingly to respect for the individual human being and his sacred God-given rights.

Through the Economic and Social Council, much is being done to improve the economic and social conditions of the less developed areas of the world.

We live in the Atomic Age. And members of the United Nations, responding to President Eisenhower's stirring proposal," are joining together to create an international agency which will harness for human welfare what was only a weapon of war.

Above and beyond concrete actions is the all-pervading moral influence which the United Nations exerts. In fulfillment of the words of Arthur H. Vandenberg-a name never to be forgotten hereour General Assembly has become a "town meeting of the world," "

1 Department of State Bulletin, July 4, 1955, pp. 6–10.

2 See The United States and the United Nations: Report of the President to the Congress for the Year 1946 (Department of State publication 2735), pp. 33-34. 3 See A Decade of American Foreign Policy, pp. 753-782.

See infra, Part XV.

A Decade of American Foreign Policy, pp 1156-1159.

6 Address of Dec. 8, 1953; infra, pp. 2798-2805.

7 Statement of Mar. 29, 1945; Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr., ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg (Boston, 1952), pp. 160-161.

exercising a guiding and enlightening influence on the conduct of all nations.

These achievements explain why, throughout the world, the United Nations is held in high respect. As President Eisenhower said in his opening greeting to you, the United States takes pride in its loyal support of the United Nations in all these manifold activities which benefit mankind.1

The vision of the founders was indeed a lofty one. They met, while war still raged, determined to save mankind from the scourge of future war. But the charter they wrote does not call for peace at any price. The peace of the charter is a peace of justice; it is a peace which will assure to all nations great and small the right to be genuinely independent; it is a peace which will enable all individuals, however humble, to enjoy their God-given right to freedom.

To attain these high goals, the charter calls upon the nations to work together. Fellowship is indeed the essence of the charter. No solitary effort could win for any nation the charter's goals. Collective effort is needed to preserve freedom. Without collective strength despotism would have free rein; the rights of nations would be trampled under foot, and human beings would be made slaves.

The founders of the United Nations endowed the charter with the flexibility needed to keep alive this concept of collective effort that these unpredictable times demand. A secure peace still eludes us. But that spirit of collective effort implicit in the charter, if practiced in good faith and with creative will, can guide us toward the ultimate goal of man-peace with freedom.

We all know that certain of the activities of the United Nations have been gravely hampered by the use-abuse-of veto power in the Security Council. This has prevented the Security Council from discharging many of its intended functions. Also, the Security Council has never brought into being the security force which it was supposed to command. The reason is that the members have not sufficiently trusted each other to make it practicable for them to unite their forces.

Happily, the framers of the charter realized the limitations under which the Security Council might operate. They did not require the members to risk their future on a rigid, all-or-nothing proposition. They provided alternatives. Article 51 permits like-minded nations with common problems of defense to join together under the charter for their collective protection against aggression. This has been widely availed of by nations which trusted each other and which felt bound together by a sense of common destiny.

The first so to act were the 21 American Republics. They had been closely associated for a century and half. They knew each other, and they trusted each other. So in 1947 they made their Rio Pact. It recognized that an armed attack against any American state was an attack against them all.