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{
    "localId": "46820028",
    "label": "Address to U.N. General Assembly, 25 September 1961",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Address to U.N. General Assembly, 25 September 1961",
    "description": "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 U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, presents six proposals for the new Disarmament Program, and provides information on the current crises in Laos, South Vietnam, and Berlin, Germany. Materials in this folder include a draft, press copy, and reading copy of the speech.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/46820028",
    "identifierLocal": "JFKPOF-035-048",
    "collections": [
        "Papers of John F. Kennedy: Presidential Papers: President's Office Files",
        "Speech Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "United Nations. General Assembly"
    ],
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    "ocrText": "XXXXX\n- 2a -\nMy country has never started a war; and we never will. We have helped to\nfinish some -- and, if we must again, we are prepared to resist force with whatever\nforce is needed. The current tensions and mistrust are neither the work nor the\nwish of the American people. But in the face of threats and arms, free men do\nnot seek a refuge in fear but take confidence in their courage and strength.\nTerror\nemployed\nFearxis not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been ware by those\nemployers\nwho could not prevail through persuasion or example. But ultimately its\nfailed - - because they misjudged the strength of the free human spirit. And\nthat is why the Soviet Union's current strategy of nuclear blackmail, of labelling\none nation hostage for another, can only succeed in meunifying all free men as\nnever before, in opening their eyes and in stiffening their will. For all free men\nare equally brave and equally unwilling to surrender their values at the point of\na pistol - - or missile. And however loudly some may talk of their weapons, the\nquiet fact is that the balance of power has not shifted,and the United States possesses\nboth the will and the weapons to protect free men from aggression. No friend of\nfreedom need be frightened out of either his wits or his responsibilities -- for\nhe should know that no aggressor would dare to risk the consequences of his\nown irresponsible acts.\nThus the world's security is indivisible -- and so is the world's freedom.\nThe cause of free choice in Africa and Asia is tied to free choice in West Berlind\nwary\nThose who believe in self-determination are well-advised to be warxex of a\nsystem in which there is only one party and one truth -- which suppresses free\ndebate, free elections, free newspapers and books and trade unions and\nwhich builds a wall to keep freedom a stranger and its own citizens prisoners."
}