Enquiry Sent!

Thanks for getting in touch. We’ll get back to you very soon.

Go Back to Homepage

1963 - President Kennedy Speech: Strategy of Peace, Commencement, American U.. 10Jun63 R1 of 3, Pt. 1 of

Reel Number: 221380-06-P1

Color: Black and White

Sound: SD

Year / Date: 1963

Country: USA

Location: American University,DC,Washington

TC Begins: 09:58:51

TC Ends: 10:04:15

Duration: 00:05:24

NOTE: FOR ORDERING See: www.footagefarm.co.uk or contact us at: Info@Footagefarm.co.uk 1963 - President Kennedy Speech: Strategy of Peace, Commencement, American U.. 10Jun63 Pt. 1 of LS of ?? at lectern, then applause w/ JFK at lectern & zoom in to MCU 09:59:05 “President Anderson, members of the faculty, board of trustees, distinguished guests, my old colleague Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree thru many years of attending night law school while I am earning mine in the next 30 minutes, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: It is w/ great pride that I participate in this ceremony of the American University, sponsored by the Methodist Church, founded by Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, & first opened by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This is a young & growing university, but it has already fulfilled Bishop Hurst's enlightened hope for the study of history & public affairs in a city devoted to the making of history & to the conduct of the public's business. By sponsoring this institution of higher learning for all who wish to learn, whatever their color or their creed, the Methodists of this area & the Nation deserve the Nation's thanks, and I commend all those who are today graduating. 10:00:28 Professor Woodrow Wilson once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time, & I am confident that the men & women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high measure of public service & public support. "There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university" wrote John Masefield in his tribute to English universities, and his words are equally true today. He did not refer to towers or to campuses. He admired the splendid beauty of the university because it was, he said: “a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see." 10:01:28 I have, therefore, chosen this time & place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds & the truth is too rarely perceived and that is the most important topic on earth: Peace. What kind of a peace do I mean; and what kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men & nations to grow, & to hope & build a better life for their children; not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men & women - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. 10:02:27 I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age where great powers can maintain large & relatively invulnerable nuclear forces & refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age where a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all of the Allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind & water & soil & seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn. 10:03:24 Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to the keeping of peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles, which can only destroy and never create, is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace. I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war, & frequently the words of the pursuers fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task. Continued... University Commencement Address; Cold War; Tired Voice; Speeches; NOTE: 09:58:51 - 10:09:35 sold at per reel rate. NOTE: FOR ORDERING See: www.footagefarm.co.uk or contact us at: Info@Footagefarm.co.uk

Show more