Address to U.N. General Assembly, 25 September 1961
This folder contains materials collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning President Kennedy's address before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. In his speech the President addresses the recent death of...
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OCR Page 1 of 85I
Sixteen and one-quarter years ago the "peoples of the United Nations, " weary
of war, vowed in deputized assembly "to save succeeding generations from the
scourge of war. " Hopes ran high and trust ran deep; and this august body became
the world's first great sentinel of peace.
But the passage of years brought vast and drastic changes -- some
good,
some evil. Old empires disappeared -- but a new empire arose. Direct aggression
diminished -- but indirect aggression and subversion took its place. The earth was
newly shrunk by science, but newly split by an iron curtain of secrecy. The
wonders of technology brought new blessings of life and new vehicles of death. The
coalitions
faces, the causes, the koxditions all changed in this period, and sometimes changed
again.
And now as never before the United Nations itself is on trial -- its members,
its values, its solemn oaths of commitment For we are pledged to "live together
in peace, " and that peace is now menaced by the unilateral and unlawful acts of one
member. We are pledged to securing "fundamental human rights", and those
rights are now denied millions behind barbed wire and stone walls. We are
pledged to "respect.
international law, " and that law is now defied in actions that
not only break the word of men but sow the seeds of war.
Those very leaders who so often addressed this Assembly on self-determination
choice
and free have now ended even the free choice of flight for theimprisoned
millions of Eastern Berlin and Germany. Those who so often warned of the dangers
of nuclear tests are now polluting our air with a poison for unborn generations.
Those who so often preached disarmament now boast of bombs too big for any
purpose other than mass extermination. Those who professed interest in the farms
and cultures of other peoples now threaten to turn orange groves into wasteland
and monuments into rubble. And those who once spoke of peaceful competition and
coexistence now expose every nation on earth, including their own, to the risk
of thermonuclear homicide.
Terms
Subject
United Nations. General Assembly
Relations
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