JFK's The Strategy of Peace IV
I. The Possibilities of Peace
Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) Today JFK+50 continues our report on Chapter 1 of "The Strategy of Peace" written by Senator John F. Kennedy. The book is published by Harper & Row, New York, 1960.
The title of Chapter I is THE POSSIBILITIES OF PEACE
Senator Kennedy titles Part 4 of Chapter I: Nuclear Tests
This part of Chapter 1 is the text of JFK's address at the Student Convocation at UCLA in Los Angeles, California on November 2, 1959.
Senator Kennedy begins by saying that the greatest challenge of a "fast-changing world" is the control of nuclear weapons.
JFK tells the UCLA students that this challenge "is not a simple problem with simple answers."
He goes on to reject the proposal by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller that the United States should resume nuclear testing.
Since the Soviets had stopped testing at the time of the speech, JFK argues that "our resumption of tests would bring Russian resumption of tests."
He also expresses concern about how many nations may soon acquire nuclear weapons.
Senator Kennedy makes the following recommendations:
1.The U.S. should announce a continued suspension of all nuclear tests as long as serious negotiations are proceeding & the USSR does not resume testing.
2.The US redouble efforts to achieve a test ban agreement.
3.If we are forced to resume testing by the Russians, those tests should be confined to underground & outer-space in order to prevent further contamination of earth's atmosphere.
4.We must step up studies of the impact of radioactive fall-out & how to control it.
JFK concludes by saying this course "is full of risks" & will require a greater effort & "more leadership, (&) more moral courage."
"And if we can master this danger, we will have earned the deep & lasting gratitude, not only of all men, but of all yet to be born--even to the farthest generation."*
*Also included in this part is the text of a speech JFK made on the same topic in Portland, Oregon on August 1, 1959.
