When Peace Is the Message

"It is sad to read these Soviet statements. But it is also a warning to the American people . . . not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats."

Those graceful and profound words were delivered 20 years ago on a muggy June morning at American University. John Kennedy's Inaugural Address and Berlin speech are best known to the public. But when Ted Sorensen, J.F.K.'s chief wordsmith, is asked which Kennedy talk was the greatest, he says with no hesitation, "The American University speech."

It had Kennedy's usual eloquence ("I speak of peace because of the new face of war"), and it also contained the most important message of his presidency. "We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment," said Kennedy. "We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had the history of the last 18 years been different." He asked the American people to re-examine their attitudes toward the Soviet Union. He set the U.S. Government on a course of creative and conciliatory diplomacy. To show his good faith he announced the end of this nation's nuclear tests in the atmosphere. From the words and thoughts of that speech flowed the test ban treaty, a prohibition on nuclear weapons in outer space, the first grain sale to the Soviets, and the first nuclear arms limitation agreement. The latter, ironically, occurred during the term of his old rival Richard Nixon.

The spirit of the American University speech is now emaciated and gasping, uncomprehended and ignored in both the Kremlin and the White House. But, as in Kennedy's day, the burden for action may again lie with the U.S. because, as he put it, "peace and freedom walk together."

If it is just to fault Ronald Reagan's detractors for having a vested interest in the failure of his policies, then it is equally just to question whether Reagan has developed a vested interest in the theatrics of threat. "Peace is a process--a way of solving problems," Kennedy told us back then. "Let us focus not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions . . . . No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue."

Point by point, with compelling logic and grace, that old text refutes Reagan's contention that ultimate evil resides in the Soviet Union and that comfort can be found only if we build up our arsenals. Said Kennedy: "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."

The American University speech arose from a simple but wise impulse. "If we cannot end now our differences," he said, "at least we can help make the world safe for diversity." Kennedy had reason to hate and distrust, having just come through the Cuban missile crisis, in which the Soviets lied, tricked, cheated and bullied. Yet his experience brought forbearance and long nights of thought. There must be a better way, he told Sorensen.

Kennedy was in Hawaii when the American University draft was finished. Sorensen flew out, and the two polished it, flew back through a Sunday night, landing in Washington at dawn on Monday. Kennedy stopped at the White House to shower and change clothes. Before a few hundred people he spoke his words for our time: "I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war--and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.