Faith & Freedom

Over the vast, silent crowd on Capitol Hill and through homes and offices across the land, the voice rang sharp & clear: "I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, do solemnly swear . . . [to] preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States--so help me God." Black-robed Chief Justice Vinson stepped back, and the new President of the U.S. stood alone.

He began with a prayer: "Almighty God . . . give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong . . . so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and for thy glory. Amen." He paused, then turned to the great and terrible issues of the time:

"The world, and we, have passed the midway point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.

"This fact defines the meaning of this day . . . We are called as a people to give testimony, in the sight of the world, to our faith that the future shall belong to the free . . .

"To produce this unity, to meet the challenge of our time, destiny has laid upon [the U.S.] the responsibility of the free world's leadership. So it is proper that we assure our friends once again that, in the discharge of this responsibility, we Americans know and observe the differ ences between world leadership and imperialism, between firmness and truculence, between a thoughtfully calculated goal and spasmodic reaction to the stimulus of emergencies.

"We wish our friends the world over to know this above all: we face the threat--not with dread and confusion--but with confidence and conviction.

"We feel this moral strength because we know that we are not helpless prisoners of history. We are free men. We shall remain free, never to be proven guilty of the one capital offense against freedom, a lack of staunch faith."

Fixed Principles. In leading "freedom" against "slavery," the U.S. will be guided by "certain fixed principles."

"1) Abhorring war as a chosen way to balk the purposes of those who threaten us, we hold it to be the first task of statesmanship to develop the strength that will deter the forces of aggression and promote the conditions of peace . . .

"2) We shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. For, in the final choice, a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.

"3) We view our nation's strength and security as a trust upon which rests the hope of free men everywhere . .

"4) We shall never use our strength to try to impress upon another people our own cherished political and economic institutions.

"5) Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of proven friends of freedom, we shall strive to help them to achieve their own security and wellbeing. Likewise, we shall count upon them to assume, within the limits of their resources, their full and just burden in the common defense of freedom.

"6) Recognizing economic health as an indispensable basis of military strength and the free world's peace, we shall strive to foster everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that encourage productivity and profitable trade . . .

"7) Appreciating that economic need, military security and political wisdom combine to suggest regional groupings of free peoples, we hope, within the framework of the United Nations, to help strengthen such special bonds the world over . . .

"In Europe, we ask that enlightened and inspired leaders of the Western nations strive with renewed vigor to make the unity of their peoples a reality . . .

"8) Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all continents and peoples in equal regard and honor. We reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.

"9) Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of all people's hope for peace, we shall strive to make it not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force."

Crusader's Call. President Eisenhower asked his own nation to put forth every effort in the cause of freedom with peace.

"No person, no home, no community can be beyond the reach of this call. We are summoned to act in wisdom and in conscience, to work with industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with conviction, to weigh our every deed with care and with compassion. For this truth must be clear before us: whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. "More than an escape from death, it is a way of life.

"More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave.

"This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity--and with prayer to Almighty God."

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