Draft of President Harry S. Truman's Address in Little Rock, Arkansas at the Dedication of the World War Memorial Park

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6-11-199 DRAFT of JUNE 9, 1949 LITTLE ROCK SPEECH "HATIONAL ARCHIVES AMO RECORDS Salutation: : SERVICE" We are here to dedicate this beautiful park to the memory of the dead of two world wars. The brave men who lost their lives in those wars would approve of the way you have chosen to honor them. This park will be a place of rest and recreation. It is fitting that a war memorial should be some- thing that can be used and enjoyed by the people. Nothing could be more appropriate than to devote a war memorial to those values of human life which our soldiers died to preserve -- the values of freedom and peace. We are not a militaristic country. We do not glorify the military way of life. Some nations have taken greater pride in their military victories than in any other national achievements, but it has never been so with us. When we think of war, it is with a prayer that the sacrifices our dead have made will never have to be repeated. After every war we have solemnly resolved to prevent future wars. We have learned, however, that it is not enough to make resolutions. It is not enough to utter them in speeches or to engrave them on monuments. We have learned that we must devote the best efforts of our whole nation to make those resolutions come true.