The Faith of an American

For one of the most significant speeches of his campaign, Dwight Eisenhower chose a forum without radio or television, gave a talk untouched by partisan politics. The occasion: the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial dinner, where he spoke at the invitation of New York's Cardinal Spellman. (Governor Stevenson, also invited, had to decline because of campaign schedules.) Eisenhower's subject: the U.S. in the world.

The Soviet Plan. Before an audience of 2,500 in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, Eisenhower, erect and spruce in white tie & tails, began by analyzing Joseph Stalin's recent pronouncement on the state of world Communism (TIME, Oct. 13). The destruction of "imperialism" (i.e., the democratic powers) is still the stated aim of Stalin. The purposes of Soviet policy, said Eisenhower, always remain the same: only the "plan for action is always undergoing revision." What is the current plan? Having brought 800 million people under its sway (up from 190 million only a few years ago), the Soviet Union now hopes that "the free world--crowded back on its own defenses--may be led to fall into factions and prey upon itself." The Communists could be counted on to exploit this possibility to the hilt--by wooing and threatening America's allies away from their allegiance. In the U.S., the Reds will appeal to "every smoldering prejudice," warning "with sly insinuation against British imperialism and German neo-Naziism, against the resurgence of Japanese trading combines or France's slowness in rearming." This "is a deadly challenge to the free world." Can it be met? Yes, said Eisenhower, for the West can defend itself by "unity and faith." "Unity is no simple precept. It is a complex and exacting principle ... It demands--on all fronts and in all senses--the sternest watch against divisive propaganda ... It demands a true cleansing from our hearts of the faintest stains of racial or religious prejudice. There is no such thing as just a little bigotry, just a little hate . . ." Abroad, unity demands that the U.S. "triumph over the temptations of economic nationalism and welcome full equitable trade with our allies. Have we the patience to check our tempers when some of our allies seem to be quibbling petulantly or foolishly temporizing in their defense programs? The answer . . . must be a resounding yes . . With Britain, we must remember that it has demanded both great dignity and great wisdom for a proud nation to adjust so swiftly to its recent loss of financial and imperial strength . . . With France, we must remember that a nation shattered by two successive World Wars--while it remains as great of heart as ever--should not be expected to show the zeal and stamina of another nation that--partly by the mercy of geography--has enjoyed safety from invasion . . . With Italy, we must salute a defeated and impoverished nation's magnificent recovery . . ."

A U.S. Answer. In the battle for freedom, the U.S. must not write off the nations already conquered by Communism; above all, it must turn its attention to the "newborn and reborn nations" across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, totaling 560 million people. "To the timorous among us, these may seem only danger spots for Communist attack . . . But to those of us of stouter faith, these are not so much areas of danger as areas of hope . . . These new lands--unburdened by weighty dreams of vanished glories--can face the future with the zeal of youth. They should be in the vanguard of freedom's forces. They should be the ones . . . whom we should be quickest to help."

Concluded Eisenhower: "This then is the faith that can heal those sick with doubt, comfort those afflicted with tyranny, refresh those wearied by freedom's exhausting battle. This is the faith--not in the fiction of the abstract common man --but in the wondrous fact that every man is an uncommon man . . . This . . . is the faith that must instruct us in the ways we wield our power: resolutely, to hearten our friends; wisely, to confound our enemies; constantly to give hope to the hearts of the enslaved; prudently, to guard the trust of the free; and courageously, to be worthy of the high commission history has conferred upon us . . ."

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