Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Our program of military assistance extends to the nations in the Near East
and the Far East which are trying to defend their freedom. Soviet communism
is trying to make these nations into colonies, and to use their people as
cannon fodder in new wars of conquest. We want their people to be free men
and to enjoy peace.
Our country has always stood for freedom for the peoples of Asia. Long,
long ago it stood for the freedom of the peoples of Asia. Our history shows
this. We have demonstrated it in the Philippines. We have demonstrated it
in our relations with Indonesia, India, and with China. We hope to join in
restoring the people of Japan to membership in the community of free
nations.
It is in the Far East that we have taken up arms, under the United Nations,
to preserve the principle of independence for free nations. We are fighting
to keep the forces of Communist aggression from making a slave state out of
Korea.
Korea has tremendous significance for the world. It means that free
nations, acting through the United Nations, are fighting together against
aggression.
We will understand the importance of this best if we look back into
history. If the democracies had stood up against the invasion of Manchuria
in 1931, or the attack on Ethiopia in 1935, or the seizure of Austria in
1938, if they had stood together against aggression on those occasions as
the United Nations has done in Korea, the whole history of our time would
have been different.
The principles for which we are fighting in Korea are right and just. They
are the foundations of collective security and of the future of free
nations. Korea is not only a country undergoing the torment of aggression;
it is also a symbol. It stands for right and justice in the world against
oppression and slavery. The free world must always stand for these
principles--and we will stand with the free world.
As the third part of our program, we will continue to work for peaceful
settlements in international disputes. We will support the United Nations
and remain loyal to the great principles of international cooperation laid
down in its charter.
We are willing, as we have always been, to negotiate honorable settlements
with the Soviet Union. But we will not engage in appeasement.
The Soviet rulers have made it clear that we must have strength as well as
right on our side. If we build our strength--and we are building it--the
Soviet rulers may face the facts and lay aside their plans to take over the
world.
That is what we hope will happen, and that is what we are trying to bring
about. That is the only realistic road to peace.
These are the main elements of the course our Nation must follow as a
member of the community of free nations. These are the things we must do to
preserve our security and help create a peaceful world. But they will be
successful only if we increase the strength of our own country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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