Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "193862",
    "label": "Press copy of American University speech, 10 June 1963",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193862"
}

{
    "id": "193862",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193862",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Press copy of American University speech, 10 June 1963",
    "description": "Press copy of President John F. Kennedy's address at American University in Washington, D.C. In his speech the President asks the graduates to re-examine their attitudes towards peace, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War, famously remarking, \"If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity.\" The President also announces that he, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan have agreed to hold discussions concerning a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. Finally, he explains that the United States will not conduct atmospheric nuclear tests on the condition that other countries uphold this same promise.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193862",
    "collections": [
        "Papers of John F. Kennedy: Presidential Papers: President's Office Files",
        "Speech Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963",
        "Speeches, addresses, etc."
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/1938/193862/content/arcmedia/media/images/36/1/36-0080a.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/1938/193862/content/arcmedia/media/images/36/1/36-0080a.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/1938/193862/content/arcmedia/media/images/36/1/36-0080a.jpg",
    "imageCount": 6,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/193862",
    "naId": 193862,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 10,
            "logicalDate": "1963-06-10",
            "month": 6,
            "year": 1963
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 6,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/1938/193862/content/arcmedia/media/images/36/1/36-0085a.jpg",
    "mediaId": "d42929ca8abff590",
    "ocrText": "6 -\ntoday, we intend to continue this effort -- to continue it in\norder that all countries, including our own, can better grup\nwhat the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.\nThe one major area of these negotiations where the\nend is in sight -- yet where a fresh start is badly needed --\nis in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such\na treaty -- so near and yet so far -- would check the spiraling\narms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place\nthe nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with\none of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the\nfurther spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security\n-- it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is\nsufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding\nmeither to the tomptation to give up the whole effort nor the\ntemptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible\nsafeguards.\nI am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announee\ntwo important decisions in this regard.\nFirst: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan\nand I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly\nbegin in Moscow looking toward early agreement on a\ncomprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered\nwith the caution of history --but with our hopes go the hopes\nof all mankind.\nSecond: To make clear our good faith and solamn\nconvictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States\ndoes not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so\nlong as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to\nresume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal\nbinding treaty -- but I hope it will help us achieve one\nNor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament -- but\nI hope it will help us achieve it.\nFinally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our\nattitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality\nand spirit of our own society must justify and support our\nefforts abroad, We must show it in the dedication of our own\nlives -- as many of you who are graduating today will have a\nunique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace\nCorps abroad or in t.e proposed National Service Corps here\nat home.\nBut wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live\nup to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together.\nIn too many of our dities today, the peace is not secure\nbecause freedom is incomplete.\nIt is the responsibility of the Executive Branch\nat all levels of government -- local, state and national --\nto provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens\nby all means within their authority. It is the responsibility\nof the Legislative Branch at all levels, wherever that\nauthority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And\nit\nis the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of\nthis country to respect the rights of all others and to respect\nthe law of the land."
}