YouSaid · the spoken record

John F. Kennedy

lines on the record
62
first
1961-09-24
most recent
1963-09-24
sittings or episodes
2
sources
un-general-debate

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  1. “It would achieve, under the eyes of an international disarmament organization, a steady reduction in force, both nuclear and conventional, until it had abolished all armies and all weapons except those needed for internal order and a new United Nations peace force, And it starts that process now, today, even as the talks begin. 56. In short, general and complete disarmament must no longer be a slogan used to resist first steps. It is no longer to be a goal without means of achieving it, without means of verifying its progress, without means of keeping the peace. It is now a realistic plan, and a test — a test of those only willing to talk and a test of those willing to act. 57. Such a plan would not bring a world free from conflict and greed — but it would bring a world free from the terrors of mass destruction.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  2. “It would place the final responsibility for verification and control where it belongs — not with the big Powers alone, not with one's adversary or one's self, but in an international organization within the framework of the United Nations. It would assure that indispensable condition of disarmament — true inspection — and apply it in stages proportionate to the stage of disarmament. It would cover delivery systems as well as weapons. It would ultimately halt their production as well as their testing, their transfer as well as their possession.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  3. “It is therefore our intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race, to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved. We invite them now to go beyond agreement in principle to reach agreement on actual plans. 55. The programme to be! presented to this Assembly — for general and complete disarmament under effective and international control — moves to bridge the gap between those who insist on a gradual approach and those who talk only of the final and total achievement. It would create machinery to keep the peace as it destroys the machinery of war. It would proceed through balanced and safeguarded stages designed to give no state a military advantage over another.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  4. “is in this same spirit that we in the United States have laboured this year, with a new urgency and with a new, now statutory, agency fully endorsed by the Congress, to find an approach to disarmament which would be so far-reaching yet realistic, so mutually balanced and beneficial, that it could be accepted by every nation. And it is in this spirit that we have presented, with the agreement of the Soviet Union — under the label which both nations now accept of "general and complete disarmament" — a statement of newly agreed principles for negotiation [see A/4879]. 54. But we are well aware that all issues of principles are not settled, and that principles alone are not enough.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  5. “And men may no longer pretend that the quest for disarmament is a sign of weakness — for in a spiralling arms race a nation's security maybe shrinking even as its arms increase. 52. For fifteen years this Organization has sought the - reduction and destruction of arms. Now that goal is no longer a dream — it is a practical matter of life or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks inherent in an unlimited arms race. 53. It is in this spirit that the recent Belgrade Conference 1/ — recognizing that this is no longer a Soviet problem or an American problem, but a human problem — endorsed a programme of "general, complete and strictly and internationally controlled disarmament".”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  6. “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation, or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. 51. Men no longer debate whether armaments are a symptom or a cause of tension. The mere existence of modern weapons — ten million times more powerful than any that the world has ever seen, and only minutes away from any target on earth — is a source of horror and discord and distrust. Men no longer maintain that disarmament must await the settlement of all disputes — for disarmament must be a part of any permanent settlement.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  7. “In view of the enormous change in the membership of this body since its founding, the United States delegation will join in any effort for the prompt review and revision of the composition of United Nations bodies. 49. But to give this Organization three drivers — to permit each great Power to decide its own case- would entrench the cold war in the headquarters of peace. Whatever advantages such a plan may hold out to my own country, as one of the great Powers, we reject it. For we prefer world law, in the age of self- determination, to world war, in the age of mass extermination. 50. Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  8. “They had only one — and so must the United Nations executive. To install a triumvirate, or any panel or any rotating authority, in the United Nations administrative offices would replace order with anarchy, action with paralysis, confidence with confusion. 47. The Secretary-General, in a very real sense, is the servant of this Assembly. Diminish his authority and you diminish the authority of the only body where all nations, regardless of power, are equal and sovereign. Until all the powerful are just, the weak will be secure only in the strength of this Assembly. 48. Effective and independent executive action is not the same question as balanced representation.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  9. “The other, seeking a different world, would undermine this Organization in the process. 45. Today of all days our dedication to the Charter must be maintained. It must be strengthened, first of all, by the selection of an outstanding civil servant to carry forward the responsibilities of the Secretary-General — a man endowed with both the wisdom and the power to make meaningful the moral force of the world community. The late Secretary-General nurtured and sharpened the United Nations obligation to act. But he did not invent it. It was there in the Charter. It is still there in the Charter. 46. However difficult it may be to fill Mr. Hammarskjold's place, it can better be filled by one man rather than by three. Even the three horses of the troika did not have three drivers, all going in different directions.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  10. “Already the United Nations has become both the measure and the vehicle of man's most generous impulses. Already it has provided — in the Middle East, in Asia, in Africa this year in the Congo — a means of holding man's violence within bounds. 43. But the great question which confronted this body in 1945 is still before us — whether man's cherished hopes for progress and peace are to be destroyed by terror and disruption — whether the "foul winds of war" can be tamed in time to free the cooling winds of reason - and whether the pledges of the United Nations Charter are to be fulfilled or defied: pledges to secure peace, progress, human rights and world law. 44. In this hall there are not three forces, but two. One is composed of those who are trying to build the kind of world described in Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  11. “It can no longer concern the great Powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by winds and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. 5,5 1013th meeting — 25 September 1961 41. So let us here resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not Jive — or die — in vain. Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And, as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war. 42. This will require new strength and new roles for the United Nations. For disarmament without checks is but a shadow — and a community without law is but a shell.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  12. “We meet in an hour of grief and challenge: Dag Hammarskjold is dead. But the United Nation^ lives. His tragedy is deep in our hearts, but the tasks for which he died are at the top of our agenda. A noble servant of peace is gone. But the quest for peace lies before us. 39. The problem is not the death of one man — the problem is the life of this Organization. It will either grow to meet the challenges of our age, or it will be gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without respect. Were we to let it die — to enfeeble its vigour — to cripple its powers — we would condemn our future. 40. For in the development of this Organization rests the only true alternative to war; and war appeals no longer as a rational alternative. Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory, it can no longer serve to settle disputes.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)