by GSR Staff
"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."
- U.S. President John F. Kennedy, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25, 1961, after General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold had died in a plane crash. May 29 is the 100th anniversary of Kennedy's birth.
This partial summary from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum puts the speech in context and provides reflection about the state of nuclear war and other issues in 2017:
Some counseled the President to cancel his plans to address the opening of the General Assembly on September 25. But the President believed the UN had to have a future and he decided to speak forcefully on the real issues confronting the Assembly and the world: a stronger United Nations — disarmament and a nuclear test ban — cooperation on outer space and economic development — an end to colonialism — and recognition of the Communist threats to peace over Berlin and Southeast Asia.