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enable the German people to get rid of those whom the Soviet has picked to rule in the Eastern Soviet Zone of Germany.

The result is that the West must continue to maintain the pressure of world opinion for the undoing of the present injustice which separates 17 million Germans from the great body of their fellows.

The Western European nations need also to continue to develop their own unity, not merely for defense, but also for well-being. It is the past divisions of Western Europe, and the rivalries of these nations, which has been the greatest cause of war and economic weakness.

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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization serves greatly, not only to protect Europe but to provide a sense of unity and fellowship. I shall be sharing in that next week when Secretary Humphrey, Secretary Wilson, and I go to Paris for the December NATO Ministerial Council meeting. These meetings enable the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of Finance, and of Defense to consult together and tighten the bonds which join the 15 NATO partners. These bonds are strong and tested. NATO is more than a mere military defense. Its members are constantly seeking and finding useful ways, other than military, to give expression to the closeness and warmth of their relationship. But there is also need for unity on a more intimate basis among the continental European nations themselves. The six nations of France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg already have begun to create common institutions, notably the Coal and Steel Community. I was glad to find on my last visit to Europe that the movement to develop along these lines is taking on new vitality. That movement must obtain its strength primarily from the peoples concerned. It is, however, a development in which the United States has a deep interest and which it is prepared to support if opportunity offers.

As this movement develops, it is bound to exert a powerful influence on the Eastern European countries. If the Western European countries find, in unity, increased prosperity, there will be increasing pressure in the satellite countries for independent governments responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people.

This may speed the day when the Soviet rulers will come to realize that to hold these Eastern European nations in subjugation involves an obsolete reactionary practice, entailing costs, moral and material, far outweighing the seeming advantages.

New tasks also confront us in the less developed areas of the world. There, hundreds of millions of people lack what could and should be theirs.

These areas have always been a target of Soviet communism.

Today, as the Soviet rulers are balked in their effort to extend their influence by force, they have picked these areas as targets of their guile. The Soviet peoples seriously lack many of the commodities of everyday living. The satellite peoples are particularly exploited, and their standards of living have been seriously reduced. But the

1 Sec infra, pp. 1653-1655.
See infra, pp. 1039-1097.

Soviet rulers find it easy to neglect these needs while professing concern for the welfare of those whom they call "colonial and dependent peoples" whose "amalgamation" into the Soviet Communist orbit has always been an open goal of Soviet policy.

The Soviet rulers, themselves exponents of a materialistic philosophy, have concentrated their educational efforts on training scientists. By now, the Soviet output of trained technical personnel is large. Also these technicians are always at the command of their government, to do whatever their government wants. They are thus available to go into the other areas, as a symbol of promises which are alluring.

We need not become panicky because Soviet communism now disports itself in this new garb. We need not assume, as some seem to assume, that the leaders in the Asian countries are unaware of danger and easily duped by false promises. These leaders have, indeed, had much political experience and have helped to win great political successes for their countries.

But the peoples of free countries which are not adequately developed do need the kind of help which matured industrial economies have historically provided for less developed economies. The flow of private capital partly meets that need. But government also has an important role to play.

We have indeed for several years had a governmental program for economic and technical assistance, much of which is directed to the less developed areas. That program is manned by a splendid corps of dedicated men and women. Congress has appropriated substantial funds to finance this program and to provide economic aid, much of which goes to the less developed areas. We expect to ask the Congress this coming year for as much money for this purpose as we think can usefully be spent, and we expect that the Congress will, as in the past, patriotically respond. Also we shall seek somewhat more flexibility than heretofore.

We are helping in other ways too. For example, our scientists, with the help of those from other free countries, had the imagination to see the immense possibilities in fissionable material. We were the first to crack the atom and to find the way to harness its vast power. We are in the lead in developing President Eisenhower's program of atoms for peace.2

However, the coming years pose a challenge to our Nation and its people. A grudging response will not be enough. Nor will public money alone provide the answer. An effective response will call for a revival of the crusading spirit of our past.

We need to recapture the spirit which animated our missionaries, our doctors, our educators, and our merchants who, during the last century, went throughout the world carrying the benefits of a new way of life. For the most part these persons were not seeking to make money for themselves, although the profit motive was an honor

1 See infra, pp. 3047-3054, 3055-3058, and 3140-3145.

2 See infra, pp. 2798-2817, 2823-2839, 2853-2877, and 2883-2887.

able incentive. What they sought, and what they gained, was the unique joy that comes from creating and from sharing.

It would indeed be tragic if our people, and particularly our youth, now became so attracted by mercenary considerations, by the lure of the market place, that they lost the missionary spirit, the sense of destiny, which has been characteristic of our Nation since its beginning and which has made it great.

I frequently think of the scriptural promise that material things will be added unto those who seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This Nation has from its earliest days been influenced by religious ideals. Our forebears believed in a Divine Creator who had endowed all men with certain inalienable rights. They believed in a moral law and in its concepts of justice, love, and righteousness. They had a sense of mission in the world, believing it their duty to help men everywhere to be and to do what God designed. They saw a great prospect and were filled with a great purpose.

Under the impulsion of that faith, there developed here an area of spiritual, intellectual, and economic vigor the like of which the world had never seen. It was no exclusive preserve. Indeed, sharing was a central theme. Millions were welcomed from other lands to share equally the opportunities of the founders and their heirs. Through missionary activities and the establishment of schools and churches American ideals were carried throughout the world. Our Government gave aid and comfort to those elsewhere who sought to increase human freedom.

Meanwhile, material things were added to us. Now we must take care lest those byproducts of great endeavor seem so good that they become promoted to be the all-sufficient end.

That is the danger against which we must always be on guard. That is particularly the case today, when a huge materialistic state like the Soviet Union, thwarted in its efforts to aggrandize itself by force, coldly and cruelly calculates on how to exploit, for its selfish ends, the aspirations of the peoples of less developed lands.

What the world needs to know at this juncture is that our Nation remains steadfast to its historic ideals and follows its traditional course of sharing the spiritual, intellectual, and material fruits of our free society, in helping the captives to become free and helping the free to remain free, not merely in a technical sense but free in the sense of genuine opportunity to pursue happiness, in the spirit of our Declaration of Independence.

And may we never forget that, as Lincoln said, that declaration was not something exclusive to us, but there was "something in that declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope for [to] the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance." 2

1 Matthew 6:33.

2 Speech, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1861; Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. IV (New Brunswick, N. J., 1953), p. 240.

That was the spirit in which our Nation was conceived. May it also be the spirit in which we live.

27. THE STATE OF THE UNION: Message by the President to the Congress, January 5, 1956 (Excerpts) '

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Our world policy and our actions are dedicated to the achievement of peace with justice for all nations.

With this purpose we move in a wide variety of ways and through many agencies to remove the pall of fear; to strengthen the ties with our partners and to improve the cooperative cohesion of the free world; to reduce the burden of armaments; and to stimulate and inspire action among all nations for a world of justice and prosperity and peace. These national objectives are fully supported by both our political parties.

In the past year our search for a more stable and just peace has taken varied forms. Among the most important were the two conferences at Geneva, in July and in the fall of last year. We explored the possibilities of agreement on critical issues that jeopardize the peace.

The July meeting of Heads of Government 2 held out promise to the world of moderation in the bitterness, of word and action, which tends to generate conflict and war. All were in agreement that nuclear war would be an intolerable disaster which must not be permitted to occur. But in October, when the Foreign Ministers met again, the results demonstrated conclusively that the Soviet leaders are not yet willing to create the indispensable conditions for a secure and lasting

peace.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the conflict between international communism and freedom has taken on a new complexion.

We know the Communist leaders have often practiced the tactics of retreat and zigzag. We know that Soviet and Chinese communism still poses a serious threat to the free world. And in the Middle East recent Soviet moves are hardly compatible with the reduction of international tension.

Yet Communist tactics against the free nations have shifted in emphasis from reliance on violence and the threat of violence to reliance on division, enticement, and duplicity. We must be well prepared to meet the current tactics, which pose a dangerous though less obvious threat. At the same time our policy must be dynamic

H. Doc. 241, 84th Cong., 2d sess.; Department of State Bulletin, Jan. 16 1956, pp. 79-84.

For the Geneva Conference documentation, see The Geneva Conference of Heads of Government, July 18-23, 1955 (Department of State publication 6046; 1955), and supra, pp. 111-114, and infra, pp. 1887-1897, 2009-2016, and 2811

2843.

3 For the Foreign Ministers Conference documentation, see The Geneva Meeting of Foreign Ministers, October 27-November 16, 1955 (Department of State publication 6156; 1955), and supra, pp. 115-122, and infra, pp. 1897-1927, 2018-2039, and 2844-2850.

as well as flexible, designed primarily to forward the achievement of our own objectives rather than to meet each shift and change on the Communist front. We must act in the firm assurance that the fruits of freedom are more attractive and desirable to mankind in the pursuit of happiness than the record of communism.

In the face of Communist military power, we must, of course, continue to maintain an effective system of collective security. This involves two things-a system which gives clear warning that armed aggression will be met by joint action of the free nations and deterrent military power to make that warning effective. Moreover, the awesome power of the atom must be made to serve as a guardian of the free community and of the peace.

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In the last year the free world has seen major gains for the system of collective security: the accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Western European Union of the sovereign Federal German Republic; the developing cooperation under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty; 2 and the formation in the Middle East of the Baghdad Pact among Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. In our own hemisphere the inter-American system has continued to show its vitality in maintaining peace and a common approach to world problems. We now have security pacts with more than 40 other nations.5

4

3

In the pursuit of our national purposes, we have been steadfast in our support of the United Nations, now entering its second decade with a wider membership and ever-increasing influence and usefulness. In the release of our 15 fliers from Communist China," an essential prelude was the world opinion mobilized by the General Assembly which condemned their imprisonment and demanded their liberation." The successful atomic energy conference held in Geneva under United Nations auspices and our atoms-for-peace program have been practical steps toward the worldwide use of this new energy source. Our sponsorship of such use has benefited our relations with other countries. Active negotiations are now in progress to create an international agency to foster peaceful uses of atomic energy.10

8

9

During the past year the crucial problem of disarmament has moved. to the forefront of practical political endeavor. At Geneva I declared the readiness of the United States to exchange blueprints of the military establishments of our nation and the U.S.S.R., to be confirmed by reciprocal aerial reconnaissance." By this means I felt mutual suspicions could be allayed and an atmosphere developed in which

1 Infra, pp. 871-873 and 972.

2 Infra, pp. 2334-2337.

a Infra, pp. 1257-1259.

See infra, pp. 1279-1285 and 1346-1364.

5 See map, infra, pp. 789-790.

See infra, pp. 2713-2714.

7 General Assembly Res. 906 (IX), adopted Dec. 10, 1954; infra, pp. 2711-2712. See infra, pp. 2826-2832.

Infra, pp. 2877-2887.

10 See infra, pp. 2832-2837.
11 Infra, pp. 2841-2843.

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