The below essay was co-written by Dr. Daley and Jane Shevtsov.
Today is the 50th anniversary of JFK’s commencement address at American University, sometimes known as his “Peace Speech”. The theme of the speech is peace, both with the Soviet Union and in general. Here are a few highlights (you can watch the full video and read the transcript at http://www.jfklibrary.org).
What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time…
Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable–that mankind is doomed–that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade–therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable–and we believe they can do it again…
Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace– based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions–on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned… For peace is a process–a way of solving problems.
With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor–it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement…
For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal…
That last line is well known, and was even quoted in The Sum of All Fears. But there’s another passage in the speech that is less poetic but equally remarkable, especially when seen in light of Kennedy’s earlier remarks comparing the resolution of international conflicts to that of conflicts within families and nations.
[W]e seek to strengthen the United Nations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument for peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system–a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and the small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.
Could JFK really have been talking about global government as a long-term goal. It’s possible, especially in light of something he did 14 years earlier, as a young representative from Massachusetts. Kennedy was one of 111 House co-sponsors (and 21 Senate co-sponsors) of Concurrent Resolution 64 of 1949. Here is its text.
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that it should be a fundamental objective of the foreign policy of the United States to support and strengthen the United Nations and to seek its development into a world federation, open to all nations, with defined and limited powers adequate to preserve peace and prevent aggression through the enactment, interpretation, and enforcement of world law.
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