"Beyond OurOwn Frontiers"

"We look upon this shaken earth and we declare our firm and fixed purpose--the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails." Thus Dwight David Eisenhower keyed both his second inaugural address and his second Administration this week as he spoke out from the Capitol steps to the tens of thousands before him and into the TV screens of millions. Moments before, President Eisenhower had raised his hand before Chief Justice Earl Warren to take his public oath of office beneath clear blue skies that had displaced an early grey overcast, his breath making tracks in the cold air.

"My countrymen," Ike began, "and the friends of my countrymen wherever they may be ... We seek peace. And now as in no other age, we seek it because we have been warned, by the power of modern weapons, that peace may be the only climate possible for human life itself. Yet this peace we seek cannot be born of fear alone. There must be justice, sensed and shared by all peoples. There must be law, steadily invoked and respected by all nations, for without law the world promises only such meager justice as the pity of the strong upon the weak. Splendid as can be the blessings of such a peace, high will be its cost: in toil patiently sustained, in help honorably given, in sacrifice calmly borne."

"The Unity of All . . ." More firmly than ever before, the President reassured the world that the American concern was genuine and far-reaching: "We recognize and accept our own deep involvement in the destiny of men everywhere. And beyond this general resolve, we are called to act a responsible role in the world's great concerns or conflicts--whether they touch upon the affairs of a vast region, the fate of an island in the Pacific, or the use of a canal in the Middle East.

"For one truth must rule all we think and all we do. No people can live to itself alone. The unity of all who dwell in freedom is their only sure defense. The economic need of all nations--in mutual dependence--makes isolation an impossibility; not even America's prosperity could long survive if other nations did not also prosper. No nation can longer be a fortress, lone and strong and safe. And any people seeking such shelter for themselves can now build only their prison.

"In this confidence we speak plainly to all peoples. We cherish our friendship with all nations that are or would be free. We respect, no less, their independence. We honor the aspirations of those nations which, now captive, long for freedom."

"Our Strength Dedicated." Ike then spaced his words carefully: "We honor, no less in this divided world than in a less tormented time, the people of Russia. We do not dread, rather do we welcome their progress in education and industry. We wish them success in their demands for more intellectual freedom, greater security before their own laws, fuller enjoyment of the rewards of their own toil. For as such things may come to pass, the more certain will be the coming of that day when our peoples may freely meet in friendship.

"So we voice our hope and our belief that we can help to heal this divided world. Thus may the nations cease to live in trembling before the menace of force. Thus may the weight of fear and the weight of arms be taken from the burdened shoulders of mankind. This, nothing less, is the labor to which we are called and our strength dedicated. And so the prayer of our people carries far beyond our own frontiers to the wide world of our duty and our destiny."

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