to pause there would be to confirm the hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a trembling world. to stop there would be to accept helplessly the probability of civilization destroyed, the annihilation of the irreplaceable heritage of mankind handed down to use generation from generation, and the condemnation of mankind to begin all over again the age-old struggle upward from savagery toward decency, and right, and justice. surely no sane member of the human race could discover victory in such desolation.
could anyone wish his name to be coupled by history with such human degradation and destruction? occasional pages of history do record the faces of the “great destroyers,” but the whole book of history reveals mankind’s never-ending quest for peace and mankind’s god-given capacity to build.
it is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the united states will ever wish to be identified. my country wants to be constructive, not destructive. it wants agreements, not wars, among nations. it wants itself to live in freedom and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life.
so my country’s purpose is to help us to move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light, to find a way by which the minds of men, the hopes of men, the souls of men everywhere, can mo