The Summer of 1955

When the world's statesmen met in San Francisco for the United Nations' anniversary this week, Dwight Eisenhower was the first to speak. He delivered the welcoming address in the Opera House where the U.N. was born.

The President of the U.S. pledged his country's "unswerving loyalty'' to the U.N. and voiced his conviction that there are stirrings and opportunities in the summer of 1955 which might and could lead to a more certain and more prosperous peace.

His tribute to the U.N founders was sober and factual: "That there have been failures in attempts to solve international difficulties by the principles of the U.N. charter, none can deny. That there have been victories, only the wilfully blind can fail to see. But clear it is that without the United Nations the failures would still have been written as failures into history. And, certainly, without this organization the victories could not have been achieved; instead, they might well have been recorded as human disasters. These, the world has been spared . . .

"Basis for Success." "The summer of 1955, like that one of 1945, is another season of high hope for the world. There again stirs in the hearts of men a renewed devotion to the work for the elimination of war. Each of us here is witness that never in ten years has the will of many nations seemed so resolved to wage an honest and sustained campaign for a just and lasting peace . . . The heartfelt longings of countless millions for abundance and justice and peace seem to be commanding, everywhere, a response from their governments. These longings have strengthened the weak, encouraged the doubtful, heartened the tired, confirmed the believing. Almost it seems that men, with souls restored, are, with faith and courage, resuming the march toward the greatest human goal.

"Within a month there will be a four power conference of heads of Government. Whether or not we shall then reach the initial decisions that will start dismantling the terrible apparatus of fear and mistrust and weapons erected since the end of World War II, I do not know.

"The basis for success is simply put: it is that every individual at that meeting be loyal to the spirit of the United Nations and dedicated to the principles of its charter. I can solemnly pledge to you here--and to all the men and women of the world who may hear or read my words--that those who represent the United States will strive to be thus loyal, thus dedicated . . .

"Munitions of Peace." "We shall work with all others--especially through this great organization, the United Nations --so that peaceful and reasonable negotiations may replace the clash of the battlefield. In this way we can in time make unnecessary the vast armaments that--even when maintained only for security--terrify the world with their devastating potentiality and tax unbearably the creative energies of men.

"We and a majority of all nations, I believe, are united in another hope: that every government will abstain from itself attempting, or aiding others to attempt, the subversion, coercion, infiltration or destruction of other governments in order to gain political or material advantage or because of differences in philosophies, religions or ideologies.

"We, with the rest of the world, know that a nation's vision of peace cannot be attained through any race in armaments. The munitions of peace are justice, honesty, mutual understanding and respect for others. So believing and so motivated, the United States will leave no stone unturned to work for peace. We shall reject no method however novel, that holds out any hope however faint, for a just and lasting peace."

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